Lebanon’s car market in 2021 rises by 2% with 13,195 sales, reporting a very strong second half of the year after dropping in double-digits in the beginning. Lexus gains 95.8%, rising 5 spots.
Market Trend
The Lebanese car market this year attempted to recover from the pandemic crash of 2020 and started the year negatively, but recovered effectively in the second half of the year.
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.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic sales have plummeted in 2020. In fact, sales have been 12.925, reporting a fall of 61.7% compared to 2019.
In 2021 the year started very negatively for the Lebanese market, in fact, in Q1 2,967 units have been sold, reporting a 26.2% decrease in sales compared to Q1 2020, and in Q2 sales remained significantly down, reporting a 19.8% decrease in sales with 3,023 units sold.
In Q3 the market started growing very quickly again, rising 47.9% with 3,601 units, while in Q4 3,604 units were reported, gaining 33%.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2021 have been 13,195, reporting a 2% increase compared to 2020.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (+74.6%) gained 14% market share, followed by Nissan (-36.7%), which on the other hand lost 5.7% share and reported the worst performance on the leaderboard. Mitsubishi (+13.1%) reaching 3rd place and gained 0.8% market share. Suzuki rose to 4th place and gained 33.4%, followed by Lexus which rose 5 spots by gaining 95.8%.
Kia fell in 6th place and lost 32.6%, followed by Mercedes (-10.6%) -down 1 spot- and Renault (-9%). Closing the leaderboard we have Hyundai -up 3 spots- gaining 6.3% this year and Volkswagen entering the leaderboard despite falling 10.5%.
The most sold vehicle this year is the Toyota Hilux (+434.4%) -up 8 spots- with 1,507 units sold, followed by the Toyota Land Cruiser (+88.8%) registering 1,365 new sales this year. The Nissan Sunny (+556.5%) closes the podium by jumping 22 spots and reports 709 new units sold.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top 10 Brands.
