Wealthy Kenyans have, in recent months, been unable to purchase luxury cars valued as high as Ksh30 million due to a myriad of reasons.
Data released by Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) on Monday, October 18, indicated that luxury car sales had dropped by 14.1 percent.
According to the report, DT Dobbie, which sells Mercedes cars, only sold 43 units which was a drop from 48 while Inchcape Company moved 16 units, a drop from 20 units it had previously sold.
Porsche was, however, the hardest hit after only selling one car, a drop from 19 units it had previously sold.
In January 2020, the contract of the only Porsche dealer, Porsche Centre Nairobi, was terminated making it difficult for the company to move volumes locally.
Production of cars from companies such as Jaguar and BMW also dropped due to a global shortage of semi-conductors production, equipment necessary for the manufacture of cars.
The shortage led to a spike in prices of luxury cars, which experts predicted would affect the industry in the short term.
Speaking during the unveiling of the Land Rover Defender 90, Inchcape Managing Director, Said Hussein Ibrahim, had warned automobile distributors to downgrade their 2021 sales forecasts.
Ibrahim noted the country was likely to experience a shortage of as much as 30 percent, with orders already placed pushed back by six months.
"It is massive, we are talking 30 or even 40 percent from what we were projecting earlier in the year. It is quite unfortunate because we have had quite a number of builds.
"Committed orders, build cars in the pipeline being pushed further and further back. Our turn around time used to be two to three months, now we are talking six months at best. Massive supply challenges," he stated.
Experts had also noted that the semi-conductor shortage was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which slowed down the production capacity.
