New car sales figures in Kuwait from January to October this year indicate the sector was able to overcome the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis very quickly with the least percentage of losses, exceeding expectations, as 71,106 new cars were sold in the first ten months of this year, with a growth of 34.5 percent compared to 52,828 vehicles during the same period in 2020, an increase of 4 percent compared to sales for the entire last year, which was 68,389 new cars.
According to official statistics, a copy of which has been obtained by Al-Rai, a majority of car brands sold in the local market recorded a growth in sales, which the sources attributed to many factors, including the decline in travel, especially in the first eight months of this year, before the reopening of Kuwait International Airport which became fully operational at the beginning of last August, in addition to postponing loan installments for citizens for 6 months, which led to the availability of “cash” in their hands and this reflected positively on the sales of the automobile sector.
The figures indicate the lion’s share of new car sales was grabbed by the Japanese cars, with about 47.9 percent of sales, followed by the American cars with about 16.3 percent, 12 percent share went for the Chinese, 10.8 percent for Korean vehicles, and 10.4 percent for European models, compared to only 2.4 percent for British car brands available in Kuwait.
The Asian brands continued to dominate sales, as the Japanese, Korean and Chinese cars alone accounted for about 73.7 percent of the total, with about 50,317 vehicles sold, outperforming American models, which came second with 11,593 new cars sold, and the European vehicles came third with 7,444 cars, while the relatively low share of vehicles continued with the British market which sold 1,752 cars, mainly because a majority of vehicles from the UK are classified as luxury cars in the local market, which means their value is much higher than other types of cars.
The statistics showed 353 luxury cars were sold in the local market between last January and October, representing just 0.49 percent of the total cars sold, compared to 321 cars or 0.4 percent sold during the same period in 2020.
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