October records second lowest monthly vehicle sales in 2021
October 2021 was a below-average month for both passenger and commercial vehicle sales in Namibia, confirming that 2021 will be the second-worst year for new vehicle sales in the past decade.
This is according to IJG research, which notes that at the beginning of the year, 2021 did not appear to be performing poorly because, in the first two months of 2021, more new vehicles were sold than in the first two months of 2019.
“Then the figures started to diverge. Global headwinds in the form of supply chain bottlenecks and semiconductor shortages interacted with domestic lockdowns throughout the year to effectively drag down sales during 2021,” IJG stated.
Statistics released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa show that 714 new vehicles were sold in Namibia during October. This comes after 767 vehicles were sold in September. Year-to-date, a total of 7,935 new vehicles have been sold.
“Finally, as December usually sees below yearly-average vehicle sales, regardless of the underlying health of the economy, there is even less chance that new vehicle sales in 2021 will rise to, or past, 2019 levels,” IJG added.
