NEW car sales in Northern Ireland virtually ground to a halt in April, with just 24 purchases registered, plunging the industry further into crisis.
With local car showrooms already posting their weakest sales figures in 25 years prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the industry-wide lockdown contributed to a 99.4 per cent collapse of new purchases during April.
Economist Richard Ramsey said it will have implications for jobs across the industry and reduce the flow of stock into the north’s used car market.
The latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed just 4,205 new cars registered for the whole of the UK in April, a 97.4 per cent decline on the 160,606 recorded in the same month last year.
Northern Ireland is already 43.4 per cent behind 2019 sales figures for the first four months of the year.
Mr Ramsey said 2020 has seen the north’s new car sales market go from bad to worse.
“Prior to the pandemic local dealerships posted their weakest January and February sales figures since the SMMT began collecting the data over 25 years ago.
“So the motoring industry was already experiencing challenging times before the Covid-19 health emergency and associated lockdown kicked in.
“Not surprisingly NI new car registrations have had their worst start to a year on record.”
The economist said Northern Ireland dealers sold 42,517 new cars in the last 12 months to April, already nine per cent lower than the car sales trough in the last recession (46,794 in the 12-months to April 2012).
“While the scale of the latest decline was expected it is the implication of the statistic that is important,” said Mr Ramsey.
“No sales mean no income. Meanwhile fixed costs remain alongside wages. It is also worth noting that wages within many sales occupations from furniture stores to the housing market are determined by sales activity.
“No or low sales activity will mean lower incomes. Other sectors such as the hospitality industry will have witnessed similar declines in sales activity in April.”
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said the figures made make for exceptionally grim reading.
"Safely restarting this most critical sector and revitalising what will, inevitably, be subdued demand will be key to unlocking manufacturing and accelerating the UK's economic regeneration."
The SMMT is forecasting that around 1.68 million new cars will be registered during the whole of 2020, which would represent a 27 per cent decline on last year.
