The months follow one another and, fortunately, are hardly alike for importers of new vehicles in the Kingdom. If last July, the automotive market resulted in a decline in sales of 12.31%, it is quite different for the month of August which recorded an increase of 4.22% compared to the same period of last year.
Still, this slight breath of fresh air is not enough to make us forget the plummeting market for new vehicles in the Kingdom since the beginning of the year. The causes of this fall are obviously known and diverse. In addition to the reluctance of some households to invest in a new vehicle given the prevailing economic context, the market has especially had to suffer from the global semiconductor crisis which has had a heavy impact on the vehicle manufacturing process and, a fortiori, their market availability.
As a result, many importers of new vehicles, including in Morocco, have therefore had to deal with very limited stocks. It should be noted that some international forecasts suggest that the disruption generated by this semiconductor crisis should last until 2024 in the automotive sector.
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Specifically in the Kingdom, 107,007 new cars were sold from January to the end of August 2022, a decrease of 9.61% compared to the same period in 2021 when 118,382 units had passed, according to the latest sales statistics. communicated by the Association of Vehicle Importers in Morocco (AIVAM). The only improvement in the table, this month of August for which the passenger vehicle segment recorded an increase of 7.34% with 10,014 units sold once morest 9,329 units compared to the same period in 2021.
On the other hand, the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment experienced a drop of 13.23% with 1,449 units sold last August once morest 1,670 units sold a year earlier. In addition to the problem of stocks, might this poor performance also be due to the impact of a lackluster agricultural campaign on purchasing power in rural areas? It is in any case a first beginning of explanation from certain importers specialized in the LCV segment.
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Regarding brands, Dacia retains its leadership with 26,435 units sold, despite a drop of 10.14%. Renault took second place on the podium with 13,222 deliveries, down 8.4%. Hyundai occupies the third step of the podium with cumulative sales of 9,623 units, in addition to an increase of 13.19%. Note the good performance in this very particular context of Peugeot (+4.2% growth and fourth in the top 10), Opel (+1.33% and fifth in the top 10), Toyota (+27.87% and seventh of the top 10) and Kia (+26.23% and eighth of the top 10).