New vehicle sales show encouraging recovery in first half of 2021
Namibia’s new vehicle market is making an encouraging recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as the first half of 2021 observed a total of 4,893 new vehicle sales, according to statistics by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa.
Despite a raging third wave of COVID-19 infections in the country, coupled with the introduction of new lockdown restrictions, an average of 379 new passenger vehicles were sold per month in the first half of 2021, which is well above the average of 254 in the comparable period of 2020, which saw 3,516 new vehicles sold. This number, however still trails slightly below the average of 411 in the first 6 months of 2019.
The first half of 2021 saw 2,277 passenger vehicles sold, 2,218 light commercial vehicles sold, and 398 medium and heavy commercial vehicles sold. On a twelve-month cumulative basis, a total of 8,991 new vehicles were sold as at June 2021, representing a 4.4% expansion from the 8,609 sold over the comparable period a year ago.
Economists view June 2021 as a respectable month as 843 new vehicles were sold in June, an increase of 6.4% from the 790 vehicles sold in May.
Financial research firm, IJG noted that on the commercial front, total commercial vehicle sales in the first half of the year are 31.7% higher than the comparable period in 2020, with light and medium commercial vehicle sales increasing by 25.6% and 22% year-on-year, respectively, while heavy commercial vehicle sales recorded the largest increase of 114.4%.
“Despite these increases, the commercial sector lags well behind the comparable period’s 10-year pre-COVID-19 average (2010-2019) when total new commercial vehicle sales were 50.1% higher than they are now. Overall, this reflects a long path to recovery in the commercial sector,” IJG stated.
