Jamaica’s vehicles market grows despite the global pandemic affecting sales in almost every market. Indeed, Full Year 2020 sales have been 7.601, up 5.9% compared to 2019. Toyota remains the undiscussed leader holding 31.9% of market share.
Economic Environment
The economy likely remained in the doldrums in Q3 amid the fallout from the global pandemic, after contracting sharply in Q2. Another steep drop in merchandise imports in July points to still-weakened domestic demand at the start of the quarter.
Moreover, private consumption should have remained downbeat in Q3 overall as some containment measures remained in place, which likely also weighed on capital expenditure. In addition, tourist arrivals continued to fall sharply through September. On the other hand, remittances continued to grow sturdily in July after surging in June, which should have provided some support to household spending.
Turning to the fourth quarter, prospects are less gloomy, although the recent resurgence of new Covid-19 cases globally suggests the external sector could feel the pinch from lower trade levels and still-muted tourist inflows.
Market Trend
The Jamaican vehicle market has grown in 2020 despite the global COVID-19 pandemic impacting sales in many countries of the world.
The market has been quite stable between 5.000 – 6.000 annual sales. After hitting the best in 2015, with 6.576 units, the trend embarked on a negative path, and in 2017 the market fell down for the second year in a row, at 5.376 units, down 5.7% from the previous year.
In 2019 the market performed very well, ending the year with sales at 7.176.
Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 7.601, reporting a 5.9% increase compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (+5.1%) lost 0.2% market share, followed by Kia (+3.7%) which lost 0.3% share. Volkswagen (+7.9%) was in the third position and gained 0.2% market share.
