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Local vehicle sales fall to second lowest monthly sales in August

Local vehicle sales fall to second lowest monthly sales in August

New vehicle sales in Namibia fell to 808 units in August, the second lowest monthly reading for this year since the 666 units recorded in January 2019, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa reported.

On an annual basis, vehicle sales declined by 24.5% and by 10.6% on a monthly basis. According to Simonis Storm Securities, the downward trend in vehicle sales persists due to lack of consumer spending, low borrowing appetite, depressed business conditions and a sluggish economic environment.

Junior Analyst at the firm, Indileni Nanghonga noted that the International Energy Agency expects electric mobility to expand at a rapid pace in 2019, adding that in 2018, the global electric car fleet exceeded 5.1 million, up 2 million from the previous year and almost doubling the number of new electric car sales. China remains the world’s largest electric car market, followed by Europe and the US. Norway is the global leader in terms of electric car market share.

“Although the electric vehicle development is still far-off in developing countries due to high cost and low electricity capacity, the demand for electric vehicles is already posing a threat to the conventional vehicles.

Furthermore, the Energy Agency projects that electric vehicles would cut demand for oil products by 2.5 million barrels per day in 2030. We are of the view that conventional vehicle sales will remain subdued for a protracted period and as global growth remains low,” Nanghonga said.


 

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys