Kuwait 7 months 2020: Toyota (39.6% share), Land Cruiser (9.5%) and Chevrolet Captiva stun in market down -36.6%

The new Chevrolet Captiva already ranks just outside the Top 20. Picture aljarida.com

The Kuwaiti new car market stumbles down -36.6% year-on-year over the first 7 months of 2020 to 38.736 units. After Q1 volumes sank -20.3%, April imploded -80.2% to 1.601 vs. 8.085 in April 2019, May worsened to -86.1% to 1.204 vs. 8.683 but June showed early recovery at -25.6% to 6.192 vs. 8.323 and July also at -6.9% to 7.751 vs. 8.330. Brand leader Toyota (-24.2%) posts the best hold in the Top 5 and drastically improves its share as a result, surging from 33.1% over the first 7 months of 2019 to 39.6% now. In contrast, Mitsubishi (-38.9%), Chevrolet (-42%), Kia (-49.5%) and Nissan (-53.5%) all lose share below. MG (-12.1%) is the best performer in the Top 10, up two spots to #12, with Lexus (-20.6%), Ford (-25.6%) and Honda (-35.5%) also outpacing the market but Hyundai (-45.7%) struggling. Further down, Changan (+33.7%) is up 9 spots to #12 while Ram (+5.9%) is up 8 to #15, Geely (+85.9%) up 8 to #21 and Volvo (+334.3%) up 10 to #24.

Model-wise, the Toyota Land Cruiser (-0.5%) is almost immobile year-on-year, an outstanding performance in the current context that sends its market share rocket up from 6% to 9.5%, overtaking the Toyota Prado (-18.6%) in the process even if the latter also improves from 6.9% to 8.8% of Kuwait sales. The Toyota Camry (-22.4%) also gains ground to 6.4% share while the Hilux (-61%) advances one spot to make the Top Four 100% Toyota despite a ghastly fall. The Mitsubishi Pajero (-42%) breaks into the Top 5 while the Ford F-Series (-5.1%) breaks into the Top 10, up 7 spots to #7 and the Nissan Patrol (-27.2%) outpaces the market to see its share lift to 2.1%. The most popular recent launch in Kuwait so far this year is by far the Chevrolet Captiva – in fact a rebadged Baojun 530 imported from China – landing just outside the Top 20 at #21. It distances the MG HS (#49), RX8 (#50), Geely Coolray (#63) and Kia Seltos (#91).

Previous post: Kuwait Q1 2020: Toyota up to 37.4% share, MG (+32.3%) breaks into Top 10, sales down -20.3%

One year ago: Kuwait First Half 2019: Toyota Land Cruiser chases Prado for #1 in market up 14.8%

Full 7 months 2020 Top 37 All-brands and Top 80 models vs. Full 2019 figures below.