New car sales up five percent

Japanese cars topped market share, boosted by a favorable yen

The market of new car sales increased by five percent in 2015, with heightened competition, discounts and special offers, in addition to the expansion of sales of Japanese and European cars, due to the improvement of yen and euro exchange rates against the US dollar.

Salim Saad, advisor to the Automobile Importers Association (AIA) said that the increase is not considered significant. “Most of the sales are for small cars, where fierce competition manifests itself through special promotions and price cuts. The profit margin is modest.”

According to AIA, new car sales rose to 39,361 in 2015. This comes as a result of the 18 percent annual increases in the sales of Japanese cars, to 15,166, and 17 percent hike in the sales of European cars, to 8,117. Korean cars dropped by 12.5 percent to 13,542. Japanese cars alone accounted for 38.5 percent of total sales, followed by Korean (34.4 percent), European (20.6 percent), American (5.8 percent) and Chinese (0.67 percent).

The Korean KIA brand continued to top the list of new car sales, with 7,525 units sold and a market share of 19 percent, followed by the Japanese Toyota (6,271 cars, 16 percent) and the Korean Hyundai (5,964 cars, 15 percent).