Lebanese auto market in 2020 falls by 61.7% as the pandemic, social and political instability affect sales tremendously. Full-Year sales have been 12.925, while the leader Toyota (-78%) loses an impressive 14.2% market share.
Market Trend
The Lebanese car market has been severely hit in 2020 by the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic and by social and political instability within the country.
The market used to be stable despite tensions within the region and was sustained by a resilient economy. Indeed between 2012 and 2016 sales were between 32.000 and 38.000 units, before finding new propellent in 2017, when demand for light commercial vehicles was strong, to jump up. Indeed, in 2017 light vehicle sales have been 52.120.
In 2018 the light vehicles market went down. Sales were declining since the start, keeping a negative tone for the entire year, except in the third quarter. However, after the strong jump of the previous year, the market fell down 18%, with sales at 39.074.
In 2019, according to data released by the local Association of Car Manufacturers, the market kept decreasing at high speed. Indeed, Full-year sales in 2019 were 33.747 (-13.6%), registering the lowest volume of the entire decade.
After starting the year very negatively (-44.9%), the market quickly collapsed even further in March (-67.5%) as the virus struck. The entire year has been extremely negative, with the sharpest drops in April (-72.3%) and August (-79%). The best performing month of the year has been November, which was down 44.2%.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 12.925, reporting an incredible decline of 61.7% compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-78%) lost 14.2% market share, followed by Nissan (-59.9%), which on the other hand gained 0.9% share. Kia (-70.4%) remained third and lost 2.2% market share. Mitsubishi reached 4th place by jumping 6 spots and registered the best performance in the leaderboard by gaining 44.9%, followed by Suzuki which lost 52.6%.
Mercedes reached 6th place and lost 0.2%, followed by BMW (-3.4%) -up 5 spots- and Renault (-56.6%) which fell 2 spots. Closing the leaderboard we have Audi -up 6 spots- gaining 6.8% this year and Lexus falling in last place -down 2 spots- losing 55.5%.
The most sold vehicle this year is the Nissan Patrol (-56.6%) -up 2 spots- with 799 units sold, overtaking the Toyota Land Cruiser (-84.5%) registering 723 new sales this year. The Mitsubishi L200 (+158.3%) closes the podium by jumping 37 spots and reports 403 new units sold.
