According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers (AIA), the number of new registered “commercial” and “passenger” cars lost an annual 24% to stand at 13,889 cars by June 2019. In fact, the number of cars in H1 2019 registered the lowest number of cars in the first 6 months of the year since 2010.
In details, the AIA’s statistics revealed that the number of newly registered “passenger” cars dropped by 23.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 13,176 cars while the number of new registered “commercial” vehicles fell by a yearly 33% to 713 cars. The AIA continues to attribute the slump in the sector to the, “dramatic economic and political situation prevailing [and] decisions of the banks to impose a down payment of 25% and to raise the interest rate from 3.9% to 8.5% on car loans […]”.
On a monthly basis, the data revealed that the month of June 2019 recorded the lowest number of total new cars registered amounting to 2,727 cars when compared to June of the last 9 years. According to BlomInvest Bank research dept., the top selling brands were Kia, followed by Nissan, Toyota, and Hyundai, which grasped the respective shares of 15.46%, 11.42%, 10.61% and 10.60% of total newly registered passenger cars, respectively.
Source: AIA