With 1,918 sales, the Gabon auto market will experience an 11.4 percent decline in 2021. All quarters, apart from Q4, saw negative performance. Mitsubishi still lags behind Toyota. This year, Gabon's auto industry could not rebound from the pandemic and only experienced growth in Q4.
The demand for new vehicles was impacted by the current economic crisis brought on by the drop in oil prices on the global market, and the market has shrunk during the past five years. As a result, sales decreased to a relatively low of 2,013 units in 2018 after the record-breaking 5,735 units in 2013.
The market was able to respond in 2019, signaling a sign of recovery. Sales for the entire year totaled 3,279, up 13.3 percent from the prior period. Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 2,165 because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, only declining by 12.1% from 2019. The year 2021 got off to a bad start for the Gabon market; 480 units were sold in the first quarter, representing a 22.5 percent decline in sales from the first quarter of 2020.
In the second quarter, sales did not significantly improve, recording a volume decline of 7.9 percent from the year before. With 477 units sold in Q3, sales remained down 16.8% compared to Q4, while we sold 481 units in Q4. The full-year sales for 2021 were 1,918, representing a decline of 11.4 percent from 2020.
Regarding brand share, the industry leader Toyota (-10%) increased its share by 0.5 percent this year, followed by Mitsubishi (+11.9%), which increased its share by 2.4 percent. Isuzu (+5%) moved to third place and increased its market share by 1.7 percent. With 336 sales (-11.1%) and a 17.5% market share, the Toyota Hilux remains the most popular vehicle in the nation.
