Kenyan Auto Market 2016 has lost sharply, following three consecutive records, albeit the Kenyan economy was the star in the region with a robust +5.7%. Isuzu was the market leader, but Nissan the best performer.
Kenya’s economy was one of the star performers in the region last year with growth rates above 5.0% in the first three-quarters of the year. GDP expanded 5.7% on an annual basis in Q3, which was a deceleration over the previous quarter’s impressive growth rate, but still corroborated the economy’s almost positive trend
However, while export grew fast, the domestic demand was weak and both private and government consumption slowed and fixed investment swung to contraction, with the latter trend aggravated by the government’s decision to cap interest rates in September.
Nevertheless, the automotive sector spent a painful year in the 2016, with total vehicles sales dropped 31%.
Indeed the market come our from a florid period with sales scoring annual all time records for the previous three years in series, but the sharp fall was almost unexpected and difficult to be explained, considering the great economic performance of the country in the same period.
However, as reported by the local Association of Motor Industry, sales had been 13.498, representing the 4th best-selling level ever.
Confirming a market peculiarity, the quota of Heavy Trucks was almost relevant, with Isuzu again as market leader with 34.8% of market share albeit sales fell 22.8%.
This is one of the few African market were Toyota is not on top of the list, ranking second with 17.4% of share and down 33.5%.
Third was Mitsubishi (-31%) followed by Tata (-24.5%), Nissan, protagonist of a spectacular +22%, Ford (-59%) and Hino (-44%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top Brands
