2/8/2013: New Vehicles Registrations and Motor Trade in Ireland: H1 2013

Latest stats on car sales in Ireland are revealing, especially when indices data is put alongside the actual volumes of cars sales. Recall that in 2013, Irish authorities have changed vehicles registration system and instead of full year, new licenses show first half of 2013 and second half of 2013 vehicles. This was done to appease the dealers' fear that superstition over number '13' on the plate will deter people from buying cars. Obviously, the dealers were not too enlightened to figure out that in the current climate, it is the Vehicles Registration Tax and VAT, charged consecutively (to make certain that double taxation becomes triple taxation) might be a greater deterrent from purchasing a vehicle.

So here are the results of the heroic subsidies and supports accorded to motor trade:

Put simply, there has been no change in the rate of decline in new private cars sales since 2011 H1. Sales of new cars in H1 2012 were falling y/y at the same rate as in H1 2013. Sales of used vehicles are at all-time lows and this means that what we are witnessing the figures is not a license plate year effect, but the effect of overall decline in demand for cars.

Why? Well, handy QNHS survey on the impact of the crisis on households (see more on this here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2013/08/182013-anatomy-of-personal-crises-qnhs.html) might offer an insight:

Sixth most frequently cited measure to reduce household expenditure is... you guessed it - car usage or/and ownership. Over 12 months through July-September 2012, 36% of all households have cut back on car usage or/and ownership.

Thus, all vehicles registrations in H1 2013 are running at 27% below their 1997 levels, new private cars registrations are down 38% and new goods vehicles registrations are off 45.3% on H1 1997.  The latter, of course, is an indicator of health in SMEs sector...

8/4/2013: New Vehicles Registrations: Q1 2013

Q1 data for vehicles licensing for Ireland is out today. CSO provides good insight and data on these here.

Per CSO data:

• Q1 2013 saw 49,591 new and old vehicles licensed for the first time which represents a decline of 9.1% y/y and marks the lowest Q1 number of registrations since 1995. Compared to peak Q1 registrations, Q1 2013 numbers come in at -60.8%.
• In Q1 2013 there were 36,286 new vehicles licensed in the state, down 14.3% y/y and down 65.5% on peak. Number of new vehicles registrations in Q1 2013 was the lowest since 1995.
• In Q1 2013 there were 31,002 new private cars licensed in Ireland, down 14.1% y/y and 62.1% below the peak. Number of new private cars licensed for the first time in the state is now running at the lowest level since 1995.

Chart below summarises Q1 data for 1965-present:

In other words, all three series are now running below their historical (1965-2013) average (more specifically -3.51% for all vehicles licensed for the first time, -13.0% for new vehicles and -7.0% for new private cars).

7/3/2013: New Vehicles Regs for February 2013

New data on new vehicles licensed in Ireland in February is out and it makes for some depressing reading:

Note the precipitous decline in New Goods Vehicles - down 23% in February and down 21.4% in two months through February. This suggests that even if the "131" license plates are having an adverse effect on purchases, the investment cycle is not turning around still. Good Vehicles are a form of business investment in capital. They are also subject to set depreciation schedules, implying the need for replacement at some relatively stable rate over time. If economy was showing any signs of recovery, retail and wholesale trades, plus other domestic and exports-related activities would have translated in higher rate of capacity utilisation, including for goods vehicles. This, in turn, should translate in higher rates of replacement and new investment. So far - the data shows the opposite.

It is worth noting that the total number of used imported private cars licensed in February was 3,717 against 3,312 a year ago and the number of used goods vehicles rose from 737 in January-February 2012 to 883 in the same period 2013. Still, net effect is that of a more marked decline in goods vehicles than in private cars.

Here's the summary of historical data:

And the summary clearly shows that in terms of All Vehicles, we are now back to the levels of sales consistent with January- February 1994, in terms of New Vehicles sales and in terms of New Private cars sold to the level seen back in the end of 1993. Meanwhile, the State continues to rip off motorists at the ever increasing rate via fuel costs, registrations, VRT, VAT, licenses cost, etc.

10/3/2013: New Car Sales: Back to the Future of Exports-led Recovery

In line with the grand claims of revival of domestic demand around Christmas season 2012 and of green shoots sprouting everywhere where IBEC & IDA cast their eyes, the latest car sales stats are showing the glorious return of the autotrade to the late 1970s and late 1980s.

Per latest data, covering January 2013, as released by CSO (link here), gains in Irish trade competitiveness (aka contraction in domestic demand-driven imports) have bit hard into the motor sales sector.

Table below summarises short-term trends:

But possibly even more revealing are the stats for the month of January taken from 1965 onward:

Not a pretty sight. Current levels of All Vehicles new registrations are running at the levels of 1994, below 1989-1991 and below the levels of 1978-1981. Ditto for New Vehicles registrations and New Private Cars registrations. All three series are marginally above 2010 disaster year and the differences of all three from January 2010 are statistically insignificant.

Welcome back to the future where exports are rescuing us... possibly from ourselves.