The ‘Let It Rust – Duty-Free’ campaign is one of the biggest challenges that the automotive market in Egypt is currently experiencing, pushing the demand for new and second-hand cars to significantly decline, but it is not the only reason behind the present situation in the car market, according to the Automotive Market Information Council (AMIC).
The Secretary-General of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA), Khaled Saad, said the customers’ high expectations of low car prices after the full implementation of the Egypt-EU Association Agreement was the main reason behind the decline in demand.
“The highest selling cars in the Egyptian market are those with prices ranging from EGP 200,000 to EGP 300,000, recording about 75% of car sales. New price cuts in this category did not meet customers’ demands, as it was less than their expectations. Thereby, the recession hit the market during the last three years of 2018 while customers followed the market waiting for the full application of the duty-free agreement in January,” Saad said.
He unveiled that European-origin cars represent only 15% of the automotive market in Egypt, so the new price cut will affect only a small share of the automotive market, adding that the prices of cars with engines of less than 1600cc declined by about 2%-5%, while cars above 1600cc decreased by 8%-15%.
Meanwhile, car sales volume recorded 180,000 units in 2018, of which 60% were imported, Saad said. He expected that car sales would increase by 10%-15% in 2019.
