New ‘131’ Registration Plate Rolls Out Today

From today on, all new cars bought in Ireland will have a new number plate. Instead of 13-D the new number plate will be 131-D

Alan Nolan, Director General of SIMI says: “While it is too early to tell how new car sales are doing, given that today is only the first day of sales, there certainly has been a lot of interest from the public in the new number plate. Only time will tell what impact the new plate might have on sales but we expect demand to increase when we begin to see new cars on the road.”

This new format plate will be in place each year from now on.

In addition, the SIMI has just released new car sales figures for 2012. New car sales are down 12% on 2011 at 79,498. “This figure is very much in line with our predictions.” December new car sales are down 15% on December 2011. “Last year, customers were incentivised to purchase their new car in December in order to avail of the lower VAT rate (VAT was increased in the last Budget) so this would certainly have impacted on the reduction in sales in December.”

“The Motor Industry is often used as a barometer for the economy and we hope, with consumer confidence seeing some slight pick up of late, combined with the new number plate, that interest will grow in the coming weeks.”