Car sales boomed in 2020, despite the pandemic: Passenger car sales rose 32% y-o-y in 2020, even as the pandemic forced a partial lockdown on the economy early in the year. Figures from the Automobile Market Information Council show that 168k cars were sold during the year, up from 127k in 2019. Sales of trucks and buses were also up in 2020, with bus sales up 30% to 26.4k and truck volumes up 6% to 37k.

Keep it all in perspective, though: Back in 2008, before the global financial crisis, the events of 2011 and the float of the EGP, the market was in the mid-200k per year range.

Car sales were up in December: AMIC member firms sold almost 20k passenger cars during the month, a slight dip from November but up 38% from 14.5k in December 2019. Truck sales rose to 4.5k from 4.2k in the same month in 2019 while bus sales slid 11% to 2.5k.

2020 might have been good, but 2Q was still rough: Sales fell as much as 26% at the height of the lockdown in April, which caused dealerships to close and consumers to defer purchases. AMIC is an industry association which only reports data submitted by its members, who are local car agents.

IN OTHER AUTOMOTIVE NEWS-

All-Egyptian MoU to assemble electric buses: Egyptian commercial vehicles manufacturer MCV, which manufactures Mercedes buses, will work with a Military Production Ministry tank factory to locally assemble electric buses for Egypt’s transportation network within the next eight months, under an MoU signed yesterday, cabinet said in a statement. The agreement is part of the state’s drive to promote the use of clean energy on the road, which includes incentives for domestic EVs assembly and the multi-year natural gas transition plan.

Volkswagen will set up an applied technology school for car maintenance, with classes set to begin next fall, under the terms of an MoU with the Education Ministry, according to a cabinet statement.