Saudi Arabia auto market in 2020 falls by 13.4% as the pandemic and lockdowns affect sales. Full-Year sales have been 469.593. MG reports the best performance on the leaderboard by doubling sales.
Market Trend
The Saudi Arabian 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 very positive tone (+27.4% in Q1), the market quickly collapsed as the virus struck. Aiming to slow down the spread of the COVID-19, on March 15th the Government imposed closure for shopping malls, restaurants, and public parks, with the exception of essential businesses, while on the 24th of March, a national curfew was introduced.
As a result, the car market in March was almost flat (-1.7%), while the sharpest drop in sales this year was in April when sales declined by 74.2%. In June the market revamped impressively (+103.9%) when a rush to purchase vehicles was created by the July 1st VAT introduction. In the second half of the year, the market remained heavily hampered by the pandemic, with every month reporting double-digit drops in sales.
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 469.593, reporting a decline of 13.4% compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-15%) lost 0.2% market share, followed by Suzuki (-34.8%), which lost 5.5% share, registering the worst performance in the leaderboard. Nissan (-11.1%) on the other hand jumped one spot and gained 0.3% share overtaking Mazda which lost 29.6%, followed by Kia -up 2 spots- which gained 2.7%.
Chevrolet -down 1 spot- ended in 6th place and lost 12.1%, followed by Isuzu (-7%) -down 1 spot- and ChangAn -up 2 spots- which gained 85.2% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have MG -up 2 spots- reporting the best performance in the leaderboard by increasing sales by 101.1% and Ford -down 1 spot- in last place losing 1.4%.
The most sold vehicle this year is the Hyundai Elantra (-25.8%) with 26.853 units sold, followed by the Toyota Camry (+1.9%) registering 24.783 new sales this year. The Toyota Hilux (-9.2%) closes the podium and reports 21.838 new units sold.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for top 10 brands and top 10 models.
