United Arab Emirates Q1 2020: Market down -8.7% but March sales sink -28.4%

MG breaks into the UAE Top 10 over Q1 2020 thanks to sales up 184.3%.

UAE new car sales drop a stiff -8.7% year-on-year over the First Quarter of 2020 to 47.462 registrations. January is down -1.9% to 16.846 units and February up 8.1% to 17.192 but the COVID-19 pandemic hit March sales down -28.4% to 13.856. Toyota (-0.1%) is practically immobile and as a result gains almost 3 percentage points of share to 32.9% while Nissan (-10.2%) falls slightly faster than the market to 21.2% share, meaning these two carmakers now hold 54.1% of the UAE market vs. 51.7% a year ago. If Mitsubishi (-56%) implodes at #3, MG (+184.3%) is up almost 3-fold and 10 spots year-on-year to brilliantly break into the UAE Top 10 at #9. Kia (+36.4%), Honda (+34.8%), Hyundai (+25.8%) and Lexus (+8.1%) also sport very significant and market-defying gains in the remainder of the Top 10. Below, Hino (+42%), Lincoln (+30.1%), Suzuki (+29.1%), Cadillac (+24.7%) and GMC (+14.3%) stand out.

Model-wise, the Toyota Land Cruiser (-15.1%) and Nissan Patrol (-19.2%) hold onto the top 2 positions despite losing significantly more ground than the market, while the Toyota Hilux (+22.7%) swims upstream and leaps up two spots to round out the podium. Toyota and Nissan monopolise the Top 6 with the Camry (+24.2%), Prado (-3.1%) and Sunny (-15.8%) while Mitsubishi places the Attrage (+260.1%) and L200 (+14.7%) inside the Top 8. The Toyota Corolla (+54.8%) is up 11 spots on Q1 2019 to return to the Top 10 at #9 thanks to the new model, while the MG 5 (#29), Kia Pegas (#31), Seltos (#50) and Telluride (#80) are the most popular new launches.

January 2005 – March 2020 unrestricted All-Makes and All-Models monthly and annual data also available. Please contact us here.

Previous post: UAE Full Year 2019: Toyota Land Cruiser topples Nissan Patrol in stabilised market (-1.5%)

Full Q1 2020 Top 35 All-brands and Top 100 models vs. Q1 2019 figures below.