Namibia Vehicle Market hit the all-time record in 2013 pushed by great economic momentum lived by the young country and fast growing economy. Future Outlook stands extremely positive representing great news for Toyota & Volkswagen.
South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa during the First World War and administered it as ONU mandate until after the Second World War, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence for the area that became Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region.
Namibia has been governed by SWAPO since the country won independence in 1990 and as happened in many others African countries there is one party and one leader. After 14th years below President Nujoma from 2004 the country is governed by President Pohamba.
The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert. Although the climate is generally extremely dry, there are a few exceptions. The cold, north-flowing Benguela current accounts for some of the low precipitation.
The Namibia 2011 Census enumerated 2,104,900 persons. The figure represents an absolute increase of 274,570 persons (or 15%) compared to the 1,830,330 persons enumerated in the last census in 2001. Overall, the population of Namibia has grown steadily since 1921, rising from about one-quarter million persons in early 1921 through 1.8 million persons in early 2001 to 2.1 million in 2011. The population density of Namibia (2011) is estimated to be 2.5 persons per sq.km.
Despite rapid urbanization, Namibia is still a mainly rural (58%) society with 42% of the population living in urban areas. Regional population densities varied enormously with almost two-thirds of the population living in the northern regions and less than one tenth of the population living in the south.
Namibia has a total road network of more than 64 189 km, including 5 477 km of tarred roads which link the country to Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 11.5% of GDP, but provides more than 50% of foreign exchange earnings. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds.
The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the Namibian dollar pegged one-to-one to the South African rand. Namibia receives 30%-40% of its revenues from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
Thanks to increasing pro capita income, fast GDP, stable inflation rate and political stability, the Namibian car market is flourishing and is projected to lead the next years growth ranking in the African continent.
In such environment, the automotive sector is flourishing and the level of vehicles pro capita is rapidly increasing. Moreover, counting on relatively high pro capita income, the government has been able to introduce limit to the grey import of aged pre-owned vehicles boosting the demand for new vehicles.
In the full year 2013, according to data released by National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), the total vehicle sales were 19.2% higher than in the previous year, posting the new all-time record volume. In total, there were 15.260 vehicles sold in 2013 compared to 12.799 in 2012.
Toyota and Volkswagen are the largest sellers of passenger vehicles in Namibia, while in the commercial vehicles category, Toyota lead the rank followed by Nissan and Isuzu.
