Qatari auto market in 2020 falls by 18.2% as the pandemic and lockdowns affect sales. Full-Year sales have been 40.725. MG enters the leaderboard by jumping 6 spots and registers the best performance (+30.8%).
Market trend
The Qatari car market has been hit in 2020 by the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted sales significantly.
After starting the year in a slightly positive trend (+2.5%), the market quickly collapsed in March as the virus struck. The sharpest drop in sales this year was in May when sales declined by 69.3% affected by the restrictions and by the drop in visitors and tourism.
In the following months the market recovered quickly, reaching -9.6% in June. In October the market registered another double-digit drop in sales (-16.8%), while the last 2 months of the year remained almost flat.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 40.725, reporting a decline of 18.2% compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-18.5%) lost 0.2% market share, followed by Nissan (-19.3%), which lost 0.2% share as well, and Kia which lost 0.1% share, falling 19%. Mitsubishi remained in 4th place and lost 18.5%, followed by Lexus -up 1 spot- which lost 14.1%.
Hyundai -up 1 spot- reached 6th place despite reporting the worst performance in the leaderboard by losing 20.5%, followed by MG which on the other hand registered the best performance in the leaderboard by jumping 6 spots and gaining 30.8% sales. Suzuki -up 4 spots- entered the leaderboard and grew by 8.3%, while closing the leaderboard we have GMC -up 2 spots- losing 10.7% this year and Ford -up 5 spots- in last place gaining 17.3%.
The most sold vehicle this year remains the Toyota Land Cruiser (-14.9%) with 5.523 units sold, followed by the Toyota Hilux (-6.4%) -up 1 spot- registering 2.142 new sales this year. The Nissan Sunny (-29.1%) – down 1 spot- closes the podium and reports 1.640 new units sold.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top 10 Brands and top 10 models.