With the meters barely reset, the new car market has been slowly getting back on track since the beginning of the year. And we can’t say right away that everything is going well.
The first overview at the end of January suggests that the passenger car (PC) segment is already showing a decline (down -3.61% compared to January 2019), unlike the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment, whose indicators are apparently in the green (+26.32%). Are the problems that affected the market last year still likely to impact the 2020 financial year?
In the LCV segment, three of the top 10 mainstream brands have pulled out all the stops at the end of January 2020, compared to the same period at the end of 2019, namely Renault, Volkswagen and Opel. In the rankings, there was no change in the leading trio, with Dacia, despite a 6.4% decline, remaining the best-selling brand in the Kingdom, followed by Renault (+29.9%) and Hyundai (-7.19%). It should be noted that 11,189 new vehicles (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) were sold in January 2020 alone, down -1.15% compared with the same period in 2019.
On the other hand, operators in the premium segment, and more particularly the leading trio, are already getting off to a good commercial start, with Mercedes having sold 223 vehicles (+40.25% growth) and taking the top step on the podium, followed by BMW (+4.43%) with 212 units sold and Audi (+39.34%) with 170 units sold. Small pick-ups are definitely on the rise in the Kingdom, with the Chinese brand DFSK (Auto Hall Group) fully dominating this market with 264 units sold in January alone.
How should the sales curve evolve this year? Positively, given the abundance of new products that will enhance the showrooms of local importers. Add to this the Auto Expo show scheduled for next June and the ongoing promotional offers that are constantly changing the rhythm of customers’ daily lives. It remains to be seen how customers will react, as they may be caught up in a sort of wait-and-see attitude before Auto Expo, as was the case before. A market to be followed closely and whose trend should be confirmed or reversed by the forthcoming delivery of the AIVAM (Association of Vehicle Importers in Morocco) figures scheduled for the end of February.
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