Category Archives: Vehicle Sales

In August 764 new vehicles were sold, a 4.5% m/m decrease from the 800 sold in July, bringing the total number of vehicle sales in 2021 to 6,457. Total new vehicle sales have declined for the second month running. On a 12-month cumulative basis, vehicle sales have grown by 14.1% y/y to 9,296. However, it is the historically low base of 2020’s new vehicle sales, rather than exceptional sales growth in 2021, that explains the relatively high  12-month cumulative sales increase. On a year-on-year basis, new vehicle sales rose 30.4% in August. All told, 2021 remains on track to be the second worst year for new vehicle sales in the past decade.

340 new passenger vehicles were sold in August, a 12.6% m/m decrease from the 389 sold in July. Year-on-year passenger vehicle sales increased by 70.9%. Year-to-date vehicle sales have increased by 53.4%. On a 12-month cumulative basis, the number of passenger vehicles sold increased by 28.8% in August to 4,257. However, the equivalent 2019 figure is 4,678, meaning that while new passenger vehicle sales have ticked up from 2020 lows, the 2019 benchmark is yet to be reached.

Commercial vehicle sales increased by 3.2% m/m to 424 in August. New commercial vehicle sales increased by 9.3% y/y. 354 light and 16 medium commercial vehicles were sold in August, a 5.9% m/m decrease and 23.1% m/m increase respectively. 54 heavy commercial vehicles were sold, more than double the amount sold in July. On a 12-month cumulative basis, light commercial vehicle sales increased by 2.8% y/y, medium commercial vehicles fell by 15.2% y/y, and heavy commercial vehicles increased by 27.7% y/y.

Volkswagen and Toyota now have an all but equal split of the market for passenger vehicles in 2021, with Volkswagen taking 29% and Toyota 28%. Kia solidified its position as the next largest player in the market, marginally upping its share to 9%. Hyundai and Suzuki round off the top 5 with 6% and 5% passenger vehicle market share respectively.

On a year-to-date basis, Toyota remains the biggest seller of light commercial vehicles with a 55% share of the market. Ford comes in second at 13%. Mercedes has taken 33% of the market for medium commercial vehicles, followed closely by Hino with 31%. The heavy and extra heavy commercial vehicle market is the most competitive of the vehicle markets. Scania currently has a 22% market share and Volvo has 19%.

The Bottom Line

August was another sluggish month for vehicle sales in Namibia. Despite a marginal increase in the number of commercial vehicles sold compared to June and July’s figures, a dip in passenger vehicle sales cancelled out any overall vehicle sales gains that might have been made. Global automotive production remains under significant strain as variable demand and a well-documented shortage of semiconductors slow production. The extent to which these supplier-facing costs are passed down to the Namibian consumer is an open question. So long as the automotive market remains sufficiently competitive prices of new vehicles should not increase drastically.

800 new vehicles were sold in July, a 5.1% m/m decrease from the 843 sold in June. This brings the total number of vehicle sales in 2021 to 5,693. Despite this monthly drop, over the past 12 months total vehicle sales have grown by 8.9% y/y to 9,119 with passenger and light commercial vehicles continuing to make up the bulk of the sales. On a year-on-year basis, new vehicle sales rose 19.4% in July.

389 new passenger vehicles were sold in July, a 9.5% m/m decrease from the 430 sold in June. Year-on-year passenger vehicle sales increased by 68.4%. Year-to-date passenger vehicle sales have increased by 51.5% y/y, as 1,760 vehicles were sold by this time last July compared to the 2,666 figure this year. Beating 2020’s figures should, and is so far proving, to be an easy task. However, new passenger vehicle sales continue to trail the (already low) pre-pandemic levels of 2019. On a 12-month cumulative basis, the number of passenger vehicles sold increased by 18.6% y/y in July.

A total of 411 new commercial vehicles were sold in July, virtually the same number as in June. New commercial vehicle sales have decreased by 6.4% y/y. 376 light, 13 medium and 22 heavy commercial vehicles were sold in this period. While the sale of light commercial vehicles increased by 13.6% from June, the sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles both declined on a month-on-month basis. On a 12-month cumulative basis, light commercial vehicle sales have increased by 0.4% y/y, medium commercial vehicles fell by 14.9% y/y, and heavy commercial vehicles increased by 28.7% y/y, although the increase is from a very low base.

The ongoing two-way battle between for supremacy in the Namibian commercial and passenger vehicle market between Toyota and Volkswagen rolls on. Volkswagen regained top spot in the year-to-date sale of passenger vehicles with 30% of the market share. Toyota’s market share of passenger vehicles over the same period is 28%. Kia and Hyundai make up 8.5% and 5.7% of the market respectively.  

On a year-to-date basis, Toyota remains the preeminent seller of light commercial vehicles with a 55% share of the market. This is more than four times the share of their nearest competitor, Ford at 13%. Hino and Mercedes each make up 32% of the total medium commercial vehicles sales on a year-to-date basis. The heavy and extra heavy commercial vehicle market is the most competitive of the vehicle markets, with no one seller amassing more than a quarter of total market share.

The Bottom Line  

July’s new vehicle sales figures bear no marked difference to June’s. 2021 remains on track to be the second worst year for vehicle sales in the past decade. By this time in 2019, itself a below par year for vehicle sales over the last 10 years, 6,227 new vehicles were sold, in 2021 that number is only 5,693. Naturally this is an improvement on 2020’s sales figures (4,186 total) but as noted earlier, that is not difficult to accomplish. More tellingly, sales figures for new passenger and commercial vehicles are below pre-pandemic averages, showing that both individual and business spending remains depressed. As vehicle sales and most other high-frequency data is indicating, the economic recovery has a long way yet to go.         

843 new vehicles were sold in June, an increase of 6.4% m/m from the 790 vehicles sold in May. The first half of 2021 has observed a total of 4,893 total vehicle sales, of which 2,277 were passenger vehicles, 2,218 light commercial vehicles, and 398 medium and heavy commercial vehicles. By comparison, the first half of 2020 saw 3,516 new 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.

A total of 430 new passenger vehicles were sold during June, a 20.1% increase from the 358 passenger vehicles sold in May. Year-to-date, 2,277 passenger vehicles have been sold, which translates to a 48.9% increase from the same period in 2020. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger vehicle sales rose to 3,958, 9.3% higher than in June 2020.

A total of 413 new commercial vehicles were sold in June, representing a decline of 4.4% m/m. 3,311 Light commercial vehicles, 19 medium commercial vehicles, and 63 heavy and extra heavy commercial vehicles were sold during the month. Light commercial vehicle sales dropped 10.8% m/m, medium commercial vehicle sales rose 26.7% m/m, and heavy commercial vehicle sales increased by 37.0% m/m. On a twelve-month cumulative basis, light commercial vehicle sales have declined by 0.3% y/y, medium commercial vehicles fell by 21.8% y/y, and heavy commercial vehicles increased by 27.1% y/y, although the increase is from a very low base.

Toyota surpassed Volkswagen in terms of year-to-date market share of new passenger vehicles sold, recording a 29.0% market share. Volkswagen dropped to second place with a 28.3% market share, compared to the 31.2% share in May. Kia and Hyundai followed, with 8.6% and 5.8% of the market, respectively, leaving the remaining 28.3% of the market to other brands.

On a year-to-date basis, Toyota maintained its dominance in the light commercial vehicle space with a 53.8% market share, Ford climbed to second place with 13.5% of the market, followed by Nissan, with a market share of 13.4%. Mercedes leads the medium commercial vehicle segment with 32.0% of sales year-to-date. Scania remained number one in the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle segment with 25.5% of the market share year-to-date.

The Bottom Line

June was a respectable month for new vehicle sales, 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, but still trails slightly below the average of 411 in the first 6 months of 2019. 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 22.0% year-on-year, respectively, while heavy commercial vehicle sales recorded the largest increase of 114.4% y/y. 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.