According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers (AIA), the number of newly registered “commercial” and “passenger” cars recorded a 5.65% annual downtick to settle at 10,909 cars by April 2018. In details, the breakdown of the AIA’s statistics revealed that the number of newly registered “passenger” cars dropped by 4.41% year-on-year (y-o-y) to settle at 10,184 cars. In turn, the number of newly registered “commercial” vehicles contracted by a yearly 20.15% to 725 cars.
The AIA emphasizes that, “This situation is due to the dramatic economical, political and safety situation prevailing in the country. 90% of the registered cars are small cars with low selling prices (less than $15,000) […] due to the absence of an adapted and structured public transport.”
In terms of sales per car importer, NATCO ranked first contributing to 16.09% of total sales over the period. Century Motors followed with a share of 13.46%, and BUMC with 12.71%.
In terms of brands, Kia grasped the lion’s share of the market as its sales amounted to 17.13% of the total newly registered cars. Hyundai and Toyota followed with the respective stakes of 14.07% and 12.51% of the newly registered cars, while Nissan came next with 10.13% of the total.
Breakdown of Passenger and Commercial Cars by April
Source: AIA