Iraq Full Year 2019: Kia and Frontier #1, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Renault fuel 44.9% market surge

Kia remains #1 in Iraq and the Telluride is the best-selling 2019 launch. Picture yallamotor.com

Discover a decade worth of Iraqi Historical Data here.

Contrasting with most surrounding Middle Eastern markets, Iraq is firmly on the mend after years of war, sporting a third consecutive double-digit annual gain in 2019 at +44.9% to 77.753 units, its largest annual volume since 2014. With a larger market comes more fragmentation and even though Kia (+10.8%) is solidly up, its share drops from 51.9% in 2018 to 39.7% this year. Kia however remains over 11.000 units above its closest competitor, sister brand Hyundai (+135.6%) more than doubling its volume to shoot up from 15.3% to 24.9% share in the space of a year. Toyota (+38%) is left panting in there place while Mitsubishi (+392.7%) multiplies its 2018 sales by five and leapfrogs past Jeep (+10.7%) and Nissan (+23.3%) to land at #4 overall. Renault (+111.8%) and Dodge (+103.3%) are the other Top 10 heroes this year, while further down Mazda (+5000%), Ford (+121.4%), GMC (+77.8%) and Chrysler (+70.2%) also beat the market.

Model-wise, the Kia Frontier pickup (-17.2%) holds onto the top spot for at least the 6th consecutive year, but it is now feeling the heat from the Hyundai Tucson (+188.1%) tripling its volume year-on-year and doubling its market share from 7.1% in 2018 to 14.1% this year in 2nd place overall. The Kia Sorento (+48.6%) is knocked down to #3 even though it outpaces the market with an improved 11.9% share. This means the top 3 best-selling nameplates in Iraq in 2019 hold a 41% share vs. 46% in 2018, here too fragmentation is at work. Below the Hyundai Elantra (+130.1%) is up two spots to #4, the Mitsubishi L200 (+441.5%) up four to #5 and the Toyota Hilux (+47.7%) beats the market but drops one rank to #7. Other spectacular gainers include the Renault Symbol (+380%), Nissan X-Trail (+360.5%), Toyota Corolla (+351.7%), Hyundai H1 (+172.2%) and Dodge Durango (+137.7%). The Kia Telluride (#31) is the most popular 2019 launch ahead of the Hyundai Creta (#44) and Kia Pegas (#45).

January 2011 – December 2019 unrestricted All-Makes and All-Models monthly and annual data also available. Please contact us here with your request.

Previous post: Iraq Q3 2019: Mitsubishi up 12-fold, helps market up 41.2%

Previous year: Iraq 2018: Kia crosses 50% share milestone in market up 58.6%

Two years ago: Iraq 2017: Kia Frontier up to 32.1% in recovering market

Full Year 2019 Top 20 All-brands and Top 50 models vs. Full Year 2018 figures below.