Car sales fell by 32% in January, in a year over year comparison. There were approximately 15,400 cars sold on the market, compared to 22,750 cars sold during January 2015.
The Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) issued a report stating that the sale of passenger car sales fell by 38% in January recording a total sale of 9,600 cars compared to the 15,500 cars sold in January 2015.
The sale of buses fell 24.3%, with 2,070 buses sold in January. The sale of trucks also fell by 18.4%, with total reported sales of 3,600 trucks, compared to a total of 4,400 in January 2015.
Sales of locally assembled cars fell by 18.7%, recording 8,300 sold units compared to the 10,280 units sold in January in 2015.
The sale of imported cars fell by 43.7% in January, recording 7,020 units, compared to the 12,400 units sold in the same month in 2015.
AMIC’s report indicated that Chevrolet was the top-selling brand acquiring approximately 26% of all sales in January. Nissan came in second with 14% of sales. Hyundai placed third recording a market share of 13%. Toyota came in fourth with 6%, followed by Suzuki and Mitsubishi with 5% and 4% respectively.
Peugeot advanced to seventh place, registering 4% of the total market sales. Kia, however, dropped to the eighth place with 3%. Opel came in ninth with 3%. Geely dropped to the 10th place with 3%. King Long and Jeep came in 11th and 12th place with close market shares of 2%. BMW captured 2% of the market’s total sales. The remaining 11% of the market was distributed among other brands.
In terms of passenger car sales, Hyundai acquired a 21% of the market with 9,600 cars sold in January. Chevrolet followed by 16%, with Nissan in a close third with 14%. Peugeot made it to the fourth place with 7%, Kia in fifth with 5%, and Opel in sixth with 5%.
Geely Ghabour came in seventh with 5%, followed by Mitsubishi ranked eighth with 5%, Toyota with 4%, Jeep with 3%, BMW with 3%, and 2% for the French car-maker Peugeot. The remaining 9% of market sales was attributed to different brands.
The report also showed that Japanese cars were able to surpass Korean brands in reported sales in January, having sold approximately 2,700 cars compared to the 2,560 Korean cars sold.
US models came in third recording 2,000 units sold in January, followed by European cars which sold 1,900 units, and Chinese models which placed fifth with sales of 482 units.
According to the report, European cars dropped by 27% in January compared to the same period in 2015. Japanese models have also dropped by 33.4%. Korean models dropped by 51.3%.
US made cars dropped by 3%. Chinese models suffered a more precipitous fall with a decrease in sales of 67.1%. The Malaysian model, Proton, recorded a drop of 100%.
Nissan topped the list of locally assembled cars sold in January with about 32% of the market. Hyundai followed in second with 28% and Chevrolet in third with 20%.
The Chinese brand, Geely, came in fourth with 11%. Jeep followed with 5%. The German car-maker BMW came in sixth with 3%, and Toyota in seventh with 2%. Speranza did not record any sales in January as the dealership was moved to GB Auto where the car will be marketed by its original name, Geely.
On the other hand, Hyundai topped the list of imported cars sold in January with 16.1% of the market, recording sales of 863 of the total 9,600 passenger car sold. Chevrolet came second with 13.5%, selling 722 imported cars. Peugeot took third place, selling 642 cars to acquire 12% of the market.
Kia was the fourth best selling imported car with 515 cars sold and a market share of 9.6%. Opel followed with a market share of 9.5% and sales of 510 cars. Mitsubishi acquired a market share of 8.4% and sold 449 cars. Toyota sold 302 and acquired 5.6% of the market. About 270 Subaru cars were sold, putting it in eighth place. Renault and Skoda came in ninth and tenth with market shares of 3.7% and sales of 200 cars each.
