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Nigeria 6 months 2012: Toyota grabs 35% of recovering market

The new gen Toyota Camry is off to a good start in Nigeria

* More articles on Nigeria car sales by clicking on the title! Many thanks to myk *

Hit full frontal by a banking crisis in 2009 that necessitated a government bailout of the country’s biggest lenders, the Nigerian economy and with it its new car market is now in full recovery. Nigerian port figures show new vehicle imports increased 15% year-on-year to 24,158 units in the first six months of 2012, as bank credit started to trickle in. At the same time, bank credit to the private sector grew 48% on 2011, boosting demand for big-ticket purchases including vehicles.

Toyota Corolla

This increase comes on the back of a 45% improvement in car import figures for the Full Year 2011, with the recovery driven by an increase in passenger cars, now accounting for 54% of new car imports with the remainder being commercial vehicles. Now remember these figures are imports through ‘the legitimate ports of entry’ into the country and don’t take into account grey imports which are very hard to quantify especially in Africa. On top of these there are cars produced locally but figures are pretty hard to get: an estimation of 26,600 for the Full Year 2011, up 26% on 2010, is all I got.

Toyota Hilux

So which brands dominate in this context? Only one manufacturer has communicated an estimation of sales: Toyota with 19,000 imports out of 55,000 units in 2011 (35% share) and 10,000 over the first 6 months of 2012 (41% share). No models information is communicated, but based on insights from local readers of this blog it looks like the Toyota Corolla is still the favourite along with the Toyota Hilux, with the new generation Toyota Camry off to a encouraging start. The Avanza and Fortuner are slower sellers.

Other successful models in Nigeria include the Toyota Hiace, Kia Rio, Cerato, Hyundai Accent, Elantra, Honda Civic, Accord, Mitsubishi Pajero, VW Passat, Toyota Prado, Yaris Sedan, RAV4, Sienna and 4Runner.

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