Registrations were up 7% in February and up 4% YTD. The 2025 share figure below is for a full year. Toyota is still top with a slight shrinkage of market share. Hyundai would love to replace the Big T at #1, a position it has never held, but that may be a bridge too far. Oh, and never forget your giraffe.
Data source: SIMI, Photo: Toyota (Corolla Tourer) Ireland.
Toyota is next with then a drop to Tesla, Dacia and Hyundai. Land Rover does well here and I presume most suited to the country. Some Chinese brands have arrived, such as BYD and Xpeng but overall the locals have stayed with the more established brands.
The top models were:
For Iceland 2024, just click the titles below:
Data source: Samgongustofa. Picture sources: Kia Iceland, Tesla.
The Icelandic market isn't big but it has a rural ruggedness and at times harsh conditions. Ideal for vehicles best suited to that and pick ups would without doubt be included among them.
Nearly 700 were sold in 2017 but since then the numbers have been regressing. I'm not sure of the reason but there were still 305 sold during 2024. The Toyota Hilux made up two thirds of the total. Some of the units sold are of the large kind, the RAM 3500 has been very popular for example.
How sales go in 2025 will be interesting.
Picture source: Isband (link click here). Data source: Samgongustofa.
Toyota is the leading brand in Ireland but it doesn't lead on the model chart. Hyundai has that distinction with Škoda and Kia next. Models from Asian brands are the strongest at the top with European ones figuring more as the list descends.
Data source : SIMI.
Sales were up 23% in December but that couldn't save the figure for the complete year which was down 1%. The beginning of the year is huge here and later on little gets sold so not that much will change from here to the end of the year. So December was never going to be influential.
Toyota has cemented its place at the top, pulling away from VW. Škoda is progressing well. Ford's reducing its passenger car involvement inevitably means losing market share. BYD, Lexus and Land Rover are doing OK. Nissan forced its way back into the top 10.
Data source: SIMI. Photos Škoda & Nissan Facebook.
With total sales down 42%, the number of minus figures in the '+/-' column was inevitable. Being a small market, shifts in volume are pronounced and some of the changes from 2023 are often vast. The top two are still the same, with a switch of places. The Tesla Y was so far ahead in 2023 that even a precipitous drop in volume still has it as a popular model.
The list is colour coded to show country/region of origin. Korean brands are strong here as are Japanese with China yet make an impact on the top 50 list below. A few European brands are quite prominent but not the ones you may expect. Škoda, Land Rover and Volvo do well and Dacia has the top selling model.
Data source: Samgongustofa.
Passenger car registrations are well down for 2024 in Iceland. They were -42% for the complete year and the same in December. Being a small volume market, a shipment of vehicles can change things quickly. The battle for the top spot has been volatile, with three different brands over the past four years.
The data below is for market share change. Tesla has lost 72% of its share when sales are already down by nearly a half! It's surprising to see Land Rover so high in any market but the marque is obviously suited to the conditions of the country.
So in the end, Toyota got back the top spot despite a slight fall in its share. It would have been worse but for selling 353 cars in December or put another way 42% of the total for that month. Most of the bigger brands improved the size of their slice of the pie. Tesla and VW were two notable flops amongst them. Chinese brands are yet to make much impact.
I took camper vans out of the total which amounted to 179 sales, up 127%. So while the market generally is much lower, camper vans did very well indeed.
Data source: Samgongustofa.
In smaller markets, things move about. When incentives to encourage purchasing a certain way are added then the potential for rapid change is likely. Iceland certainly has those two.
The Model Y not only helped propel Tesla to the top for best selling brand but is also miles ahead in the top ranked model stakes. The Model Y took almost 19% of total sales or put another way, about one in five cars sold was a Tesla Y. I asked why too. The Dacia Duster was second and the the oddly named bZ4Z third, coming out of nowhere.
Data source: Samgongustofa. Picture: Rent A Tesla Iceland.
Registrations were up 6% in December and YTD. Camper vans are not included in the data although they probably are elsewhere. The 'Diff' column shows market share change. The top brands have really made a statement with some hefty gains. Toyota and Kia have been battling it out for the top spot but Tesla stepped up to the plate and ran away with it.
New brands arrived in force this year, mostly Chinese. Dacia has been improving of late but is still some way off the top three. Premium marques didn't fare well although Land Rover does very well. The picture below is from Go Car Rentals. An ideal sort of vehicle for the conditions in Iceland.
Data source: Samgongustofa.
Brands like Toyota and Hyundai do well here, evidenced by the top selling model list. Few European brands feature at the very top though. Ford does well, as is the case across the Irish Sea in the UK. Tesla isn't as popular in Ireland as it proving to be in many countries but the trend is now very much upward.
Electric cars totaled 22,789, an increase of 45% which is nearly 19% of all sales. All registrations were up 16% so BEVs are making inroads. Petrol (30%), hybrid (27%) and diesel (22%) are all still more popular than BEV passenger cars.
50,700 used imports came to Ireland in 2023, an increase of 9%. Most of those come from the UK. They are obviously not included below.
Data source: SIMI. Pics: completecar.ie.
Registrations were up 16% for the year but December sales are sufficiently insignificant to read anything into. January to July were all up on 2022 and August to November down. That trend indicates sales in 2024 could be lower than 2023. Still, 2023 was the best year since 2018.
Toyota is solidly placed on top of the pile with a slightly reduced market share. As VW and Hyundai experienced the same fate, no harm was done. Škoda did well though as did Dacia. Tesla is making up for lost time.
The 'Diff' column below shows market share change.
Data source: SIMI.
In a small island nation with a harsh environment, there are unique features of the car market here. The numbers are not large but I'm sure we all appreciate the openness that allows this insight.
In 2005, 18,000 passenger cars were sold here. That was reduced to 17,100 the following year, then 16,000. How was 2008 in comparison as the global recession bit? Very badly as we will see.
It's also of note that the Land Cruiser 150/200 was the best selling vehicle. In fact, Toyota took four of the top five placings for model sales. Japanese models took sixteen spots of the top twenty five. Hyundai took another five making it an Asian dominated chart.
Because the economic disaster that hit Iceland was only starting 2009 was going to be a tough one for car sales and it delivered on that in spades.
The full impact of the excessive years leading up to this were now being felt. Registrations dropped another 76% from 2008 and 86% down on 2007!
In a year, Toyota sales slumped by 81% although others fared better. Suzuki numbers were only off by 15% and as a consequence, it jumped from ninth to second. It now had the best selling model too.
Asian models were now holding all the top positions although the numbers were such that no one was crowing. From 2007, Volkswagen fell from second to eighth and Škoda from fourth to seventeenth.
At least now the worst had passed and more stable and restrained conditions were to come.
Registration rebounded by 40% but only back to 3,100. It was going to take time to repair the severely damaged economy.
Toyota sales were up 49%, Suzuki 29% and Volkswagen 435% from a paltry 69 registrations in 2009 to 373. They were the top three for the year.Volkswagen had the top model with the Polo, ahead of the Suzuki Grand Vitara and Toyota Yaris. The Land Cruiser 150/200 was still selling well but not the best selling.
Chevrolet did well with its range of mainly Korean sourced offerings. There was certainly a fluid state in the market as things started to recover.
Data source: Samgongustofa.
Photograph: Netcarshow
The Tesla Y is so far ahead, nothing comes close. That advantage cannot surely be maintained. The bZ4X is next and the combined ID.4 and 5 is then third. The Model 3 is 7th ranked, ensuring a comfortable advantage for Tesla over all others.
Asian brands are prolific at the top of the sales chart in Ireland, as evidenced by the yellow colour. Europe comes in force later (pale blue) but is clearly playing second fiddle here.
Hyundai is not the best selling brand overall but it does have the distinction of being the leading model and comfortably so. Toyota has four of the top six best selling models. The new Nissan Qashqai has belatedly arrived and starting to make a move upward.
Data source: SIMI.
Registrations for December were up -46% but with so few car registered at the end of the year, it didn't have much impact. For the full year they were a tiny 0.3% up. It's surprising how few brands are here. Polestar arrived but the usual flurry of new Chinese brands elsewhere in Europe hasn't reached the Emerald Isle yet.
Toyota is top with Hyundai pushing hard but making no progress in terms of catching up, in fact it lost ground. VW is lagging behind with Kia fourth. Then comes quite a bit of yellow as brands immediately lose market share in tandem. Mitsubishi has left the market here, as happened in the UK too.
Data source: SIMI.
Iceland does have a unique market. How many can say they have two Jeep models in the top 25 or a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross in the top 5? In Iceland, then can say já to both. The Mitsubishi Elipse Cross (picture at the bottom of the page) is the only model the brand sold during 2022, another fact not replicated elsewhere I can think of. I'm sure there are more anomalies as well.
Data source: Samgongustofa.
