New vehicle sales maintain upward trajectory in May
The number of total new vehicle sales has ticked up every month this year on a year-on-year basis, all but confirming an ongoing recovery in vehicle sales.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa recently released Namibia’s new vehicle sale statistics for May 2021, showing that in the month, 792 new vehicle sales were sold, an increase of 4.9% from the 755 vehicles sold in April.
As at 31 May, 4,052 new vehicles were sold for the year, of which 1,849 were passenger vehicles, 1,887 light commercial vehicles, and 316 medium and heavy commercial vehicles. By comparison, the first five months of 2020 saw 2,750 new vehicles sold.
However, in its monthly vehicle sales report, IJG noted that despite the glimmers of recovery, total vehicle sales still lag the pre-Covid-19 era, when an average of 868 sales were made per month in 2019.
The firm stated that the monthly passenger vehicle sales for 2021 have averaged 370, slightly below the average of 380 recorded in 2019.
“This indicates that it is the commercial sector that has been impacted the hardest by the pandemic and continues to struggle. This year’s monthly average commercial vehicle sales are 9.6% lower than an already low base of 488 in 2019, which indicates muted activity in Namibia’s commercial sector, as few new businesses enter the scene, while existing businesses rely on their existing vehicles instead of expanding their fleet,” IJG stated.
Toyota continued as the leader in the light commercial vehicle space with a 54.0% market share, Nissan maintained second place with a 13.5% market share. Ford and Isuzu claimed 13.1% and 5.8%, respectively, of the number of light commercial vehicles sold thus far in 2021.
Mercedes surpassed Hino as the leader in the medium commercial vehicle segment with 33.3% of sales year-to-date. Scania remained number one in the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle segment with 23.8% of the market share year-to-date.
