Zambia’s Auto market in 2021 drops 10.8% with 1,702 sales, reporting a severe double-digit drop in the second half after a positive performance in the first half. Toyota remains the leader with 34.2% market share.
Market Trend
The Zambian car market this year was unable to recover from the pandemic crash of the previous year, and reported double-digit losses in the second half of the year.
The new vehicle market in recent years have shown a trend not correlated with the official economic index, growing when the economy was suffering and falling when the economy was recovering. This unusual correlation with the domestic economy is probably depending on the strong import of used vehicles (near 90% of total new vehicles registered each year). When the economy pushes up the demand for vehicles, people buy more vehicles in the low price range (used) while when purchase power is limited, only the upper class and government agencies keep purchasing vehicles.
After three consecutive years of growth, in 2019 the market fell. Indeed, Full-year registrations have been 4,466, down 9.9%.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic full-Year sales for 2020 have been 1,908, reporting a decline of 57.3% compared to 2019.
In 2021 the year started positively for the Zambian market, in fact, in Q1 495 units have been sold, reporting a 8.6% increase in sales compared to Q1 2020, and in Q2 growth slowed down, reporting a 2.7% increase in sales with 464 units sold.
In Q3 sales started dropping 20.5% with 368 units sold, and in Q4 kept dropping 30.2% with 375 units sold.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2021 have been 1,702, reporting a 10.8% decrease compared to 2020.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-3%) gained 2.7% market share, followed by Tata (-8.6%), which gained 0.3% share. Isuzu (-18.2%) was in the third position and lost 0.8% market share.
The most sold model in the country remains the Toyota Land Cruiser with 239 sales (+21.9%), holding 18.2% market share.
