Namibia experienced a record-breaking surge in passenger vehicle sales during February 2023, according to the latest data.
A total of 1,103 new vehicles were sold, which is 294 more than the revised figure for January, representing a 24.9% year-on-year increase from the 883 new vehicles sold in February 2022.
Of the 1,103 vehicles sold in February 2023, 559 were passenger vehicles, marking an increase of 17.4% month-on-month and 27.3% year-on-year. IJG noted that this was the highest monthly number of new passenger vehicle sales since July 2018.
Toyota emerged as the leader in passenger vehicle sales, capturing 37.8% of the segment sales year-to-date, followed by Volkswagen with 24.3% of the market share, Kia with 8.3%, and Suzuki with 5.4%.
According to vehicle sales data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), 1,035 passenger vehicles were sold in the first two months of 2023, which is the highest number of year-to-date sales by February since 2016.
“The month saw 486 light commercial vehicles, 25 medium commercial vehicles, and 33 heavy commercial vehicles sold,” according to research firm, “on a year-on-year basis, light commercial sales rose by 32.8% y/y, medium commercial vehicles grew by 56.3% y/y, and heavy and extra heavy vehicle sales declined by 46.8% y/y from a high base in February 2022.”
February 2023 also witnessed the highest number of new commercial vehicle sales since March 2021, with 544 units sold.
The month-on-month increase was mainly driven by the 211 unit increase in commercial vehicle sales, although the 83 unit increase in passenger vehicle sales is by no means insignificant.
“The 1,103 new vehicle sales figure in February was the highest number since November 2018 when 1,197 new vehicles were sold,” according to IJG.
In 2022, a total of 10,923 vehicle units were sold in Namibia, a 15.9% increase compared to the 9,427 units sold in 2021 and exceeding the 10,415 units sold in 2019.
