Sudan Cars Market is harnessed by dictatorship and war and stands at minimum level as the entire Sudanese industrial sector. In the 2014 market grew over 20% while standing at one-fourth of the record volume posted in 2009.
Country Overview
Sudan is situated in northern Africa, with a 853 km (530 mi) coastline bordering the Red Sea. It has land borders with Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Libya. With an area of 1,886,068 km2 (728,215 sq mi), it is the third largest country on the continent (after Algeria and Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the sixteenth largest in the world.
Until July 2011 Sudan was the biggest country in Africa, but now, with South Sudan having broken away to form a new nation, maps of Africa are being redrawn. This redefining of national boundaries is making for huge changes, geographically, politically, financially and culturally.
Formally a republic, it is under the dictatorship of the “President” Al Bashir that has taken the power in the 1989 transforming the country in a Islamic authoritarian single-party state.Following years of civil war, in the 2011 the region of the South created a new State, officially recognized under the name of South Sudan.
Sudan is an extremely poor country that has experienced protracted social conflict, civil war, and, in July 2011, the loss of three-quarters of its oil production due to the secession of South Sudan. The oil sector had driven much of Sudan’s GDP growth since 1999.
For nearly a decade, the economy boomed on the back of rising oil production, high oil prices, and significant inflows of foreign direct investment.
Ongoing conflicts in Southern Kordofan, Darfur, and the Blue Nile states, lack of basic infrastructure in large areas, and reliance by much of the population on subsistence agriculture keep close to half of the population at or below the poverty line.
Automotive Sector
Due to the poor level of infrastructures, the use of off-roads and pick ups is the ideal to travel in the country, but the low-level of pro capita income the huge mass of people in absolute poverty had represented barriers to the born of several industrial sectors including the automotive, with 80% of population still working in the agricultural sector.
The French Renault had opened a little plant, few years ago, but it was forced to close and leave the country, one of the few in Africa were Renault is not distributing vehicles. The circulating fleet is populated by old and obsolete vehicles imported by neighboring countries and Arabic Gulf area (UAE overall) while new vehicles market is still very little and with low perspectives for the next future.
According with our local sources, in the 2014 the sales of new light vehicles had been 3.035, up 21.4% from the previous year. The all-time record had been achieved in the 2009 with 12.000 units sold. In this data, South Sudan was included.
Market leader is Toyota with a market share above 60%, followed by Hyundai and Isuzu. The best-selling model is the Toyota Land Cruiser, followed by the Hilux and the Prado.
