Kenya December 2012: Toyota Land Cruiser most popular

Thanks to the hard work of Rutger I am able to share with you some very rare data about the Kenyan new vehicle market, up a shy 1% year-on-year in 2012 to 12,798 units. This is the “the slowest growth since 2009 when reduced economic activity due to the post-election and global economic meltdown cut orders by 20%”, says local website Business Daily Africa. General Motors East Africa, mainly distributing Isuzu light and heavy commercial vehicles, maintains its lead over the Kenyan market with sales up a robust 9% to 3,421 units for a 26.7% market share. “We had a lot of orders for our Isuzu buses last year. We could not supply all the units in 2012 and the strong order book is keeping us busy in this first quarter,” says Rita Kavashe, GMEA’s managing director.

The saloon car market has come under serious attack from imported second hand vehicles over the past 5 years, increasing the pressure on Toyota, up just 3% at #2 with 3,099 sales and 24.2%, and CMC Motors, which deals in Land Rover, Volkswagen and Ford models, down to #5. Model-wise, in December the Toyota Land Cruiser takes the lead with 108 sales and almost 10% share, followed by the Mitsubishi Diesel 9-tonne truck and the Toyota Hilux Double Cab.