Egypt April 2012: Hyundai Verna leads, Chevrolet Sonic lands #20

May 25, 2012
Matt Gasnier

Chevrolet Sonic

* See the Top 132 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Ldman *

The Egyptian car market is up 32% year-on-year in April to 16,405, but the 2011 figure was by the Spring revolution. In this context April 2012 is down 15% on April 2010. The 2012 year-to-date total stands at 59,652 units, up 33% on 2011 but down 23% on 2010. The Top 2 best-selling models are unchanged vs. last month, the 2012 year-to-date and Full Year 2011 rankings: the Hyundai Verna is in pole position with 1,768 sales and 10.8% share, followed by the Chevrolet TFR Pick-up (aka Isuzu D-Max) at 1,635 units and 10%. The new generation Hyundai Elantra rounds up the podium, up 2 spots on March with 1,147 sales and 7% share, its highest in the country since December 2011.

Peugeot 508

Other great performers this month include the Suzuki Maruti M800 up 15 ranks on last month to #11, the new generation Kia Rio up 12 to #16 and the Renault Fluence up 21 to #18. One model manages to land directly within the Egyptian Top 20 for its very first month of sales in the country and it’s the Chevrolet Sonic with 124 sales for a solid 0.8% market share. Further down, notice the Chevrolet Cruze up 8 spots to #23, the new gen Kia Picanto up 12 to #26, the Chevrolet Spark up 46 to #29 and the Peugeot 508 reappearing in the ranking at a best-ever 30th place.

Maple Aspire

There are no less than 22 Chinese models in the Egyptian ranking this month, with the Speranza Tiggo leading the pack at #15 with 244 sales and 1.5%. But I decided to put the spotlight on a little-known Chinese brand: Maple, also known as Shanghai Maple Guorun Automobile or SMA. As it happens, this brand actually doesn’t exist anymore, having been fully consolidated into Geely in 2008 and then replaced by Englon. But a few very last models are being sold in various countries, including Ukraine and Egypt: the Maple Aspire is #86 with 7 units sold…

Maple Escala