A report on car sales in the Kenyan market shows that sales of new luxury cars dropped 30% on the 11 months leading up to November 2020. This was a result of the huge hammering of earnings that most households and businesses faced due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

These statistics were presented by the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) showing orders for high-end vehicles. These are luxury cars that cost as much as KES 30 million, whose orders fell to 236 units in the review period from 340 the previous year.

German brand BMW, whose franchise is now under Inchcape Kenya, was the only one that saw notable growth in this category. Its sales increased to 24 compared from 2019’s nine units.

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As expected, the data from KMI shows that 10 of the 24 BMW cars were purchase by the wealthy Kenyans. This was after the economy started re-opening in earnest from July, 6th.

Land Rover models, which are quite popular among politicians and heads of blue-chip firms, saw a drop from 40 units to 33 units in the same 11-month period. The British car brand also operates in the country under Inchcape Kenya franchise.

KMI’s report goes further to show that sales of the iconic Mercedes Benz make fell 42.41% from 257 to 148 units.

Additionally, Inchcape sold a total of 6 Jaguar cars which dropped by just one. Porsche Centre Nairobi then saw 23 units ordered, a marginal drop from 24 units in the corresponding period in 2019.

On the other hand, Bentley cars decline to two from three units, according to KMI.

Despite the drops, it’s quite clear that a number of the high and mighty still had the means to defy the corona crisis and renew their high-end luxurious daily drivers.