Significant increase in new car registrations in Westmeath during 2021
The increase in new car registrations in Westmeath last year outpaced the national average as the car market locally began to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
A total of 1,566 new car registrations was recorded in Westmeath in 2021, which was up by 277 vehicles, or 21.5%, in comparison with 2020.
The rise in new car registrations in the Lake County was ahead of the national average of a 19% increase in registrations last year.
Waterford, with a 28.6% growth in registrations, was the only county which had a faster rate of increase in new cars registered.
Roscommon was almost exactly in line with the national average, as it had an 18.3% increase in new car registrations last year. The county registered 993 vehicles in 2021, compared with 839 the previous year.
Offaly, meanwhile, recorded a slower rate of growth in new car registrations, which increased by 49, or 4.4%, to reach a total of 1,164.
The figures were released this week by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) in its annual round up of official new vehicle statistics.
A total of 104,932 new cars were registered in Ireland in 2021 compared to 88,325 for the same period in 2020.
Despite this increase, the car market has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels of activity, with new registrations last year down by more than 10% nationally when compared with 2019.
A total of 8,646 new electric cars were registered in 2021, which was more than twice the figure in 2020 (4,013) and was also up significantly on the figure from 2019 (3,444).
New Light Commercial Vehicle (HCV) registrations in 2021 saw an increase of 32.3% (28,741) compared to 2020 (21,732) while new Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HGV) registrations were up by 31.5% (2,716) in comparison with 2020 (2,066).
Manual transmissions accounted for 50.95% of the market share, while automatic transmissions, at 48.93%, continued to increase their popularity again this year.
The hatchback remained Ireland's top selling car body type of 2021, while grey was the top-selling colour, as it has been for the past six years.