Lebanon January-October 2018: Nissan Patrol (+118%) storms into #1

Thanks to a spectacular 118% year-on-year surge, the Nissan Patrol is now #1 in Lebanon.

* See the Top 33 All-brands and Top 50 models by clicking on the title *

Consult 8 years worth of Lebanon Historical Data here

The Lebanese new car market freefalls 21.2% year-on-year over the first 10 months of 2018 to 34.365 registrations, a drop reducing to -17.9% when taking into account the same set of manufacturers – in effect removing the VW and BMW Groups from 2017 data as these don’t report in 2018. Brand leader Toyota (-48%) almost slices its volume in two vs. the same period in 2017 to 22.8% share, a ghastly evolution that now places the carmaker under threat from Nissan surging 49% to 18.5%. Meanwhile both Kia (-14%) and Hyundai (-15%) manage to lose less ground than the market, Suzuki (+6%) and Chevrolet (+3%) post timid upticks but it’s Jeep (+78%), Honda (+75%), Land Rover (+43%) and Jaguar (+39%) that shine the brightest in the remainder of the Top 20. Notice also Citroen (+40%), Volvo (+30%), Geely (+20%) also in great shape whereas Datsun (-94%) and Opel (-83%) all but die.

Even though the new generation isn’t on sale here, the Nissan Micra is up 208% to #10.

The models ranking is the theatre of a spectacular changeover: thanks to sales more than doubling year-on-year, the Nissan Patrol (+118%) snaps the overall lead with a very impressive 8.5% share, having created an unsurmountable gap over the Toyota Land Cruiser (-65%) at 5% whereas the latter was still #1 at the half-year mark. The Kia Picanto (-21%) remains in third place ahead of two competitors: the Hyundai i10 (+17%) and Toyota Yaris (-9%). Leader over the Full Year 2017, the Toyota Prado (-75%) implodes to #6 while the Kia Rio (-17%), best-seller in November 2017, is down to #7. The Nissan Micra (+208%) sees its sales triple to break into the Top 10 vs. #28 over FY2017. The Suzuki Jimmy (+3180%), Chevrolet Equinox (+1633%), Hyundai i20 (+429%), Hyundai Elantra (+74%), Range Rover Sport (+73%), Nissan X-Trail (+72%), Toyota Hilux (+71%), Honda Civic (+67%) and Nissan Kicks (+44%) shine in the remainder of the Top 50 that only holds one recent launch: the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (#39).

Lebanon 2010-2018: All Make and All Models monthly data available. Contact us for more

Previous post: Lebanon First Half 2018: Land Cruiser (-45%) and Patrol (+47%) lead

One year ago: Lebanon November 2017: Kia Rio leads, Datsun shines

Full January-October 2018 Top 33 All-brands and Top 50 models below.