Egypt Achieves A Major Boom In Car And Bus Sales

A report issued by the Automotive Market Information Council (AMIC) on Tuesday showed that sales of passenger cars recorded an increase of 98%, reaching 45.1 thousand cars, compared to 22.7 thousand cars in the same period of the previous year.

Bus sales also witnessed a growth of 46.6% to reach 3.4 thousand units, while truck sales jumped by 104% to record 9.5 thousand trucks. On a monthly level, May 2025 recorded an amazing increase of 128% in total car sales, reaching 14.3 thousand vehicles, compared to 6.2 thousand vehicles in May 2024, mainly driven by increased demand for passenger cars.

This boom comes after the year 2024, which witnessed a 136% increase in car sales, reaching 102.2 thousand vehicles compared to 90.3 thousand vehicles in 2023, which reflects the market’s gradual recovery from the challenges it faced in previous years. However, the market is still suffering from challenges related to the lack of supply, especially after the partial cessation of importing passenger cars since May 2024 due to problems in the pre-registration system for shipments. (ACI), which requires shipment data to be submitted at least 48 hours in advance via the government “Nafza” platform.

Last March, Egyptian Finance Minister Ahmed Kojak announced the allocation of one billion pounds in the current 2024/2025 budget to support the strategy of localizing the automobile industry, with the aim of increasing the local component of production to more than 45% during the year.

In October 2024, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed the importance of local manufacturing to reduce dependence on imports and face the challenges of providing foreign currency, noting that manufacturing cars locally is a necessary step to meet local needs. This strategy includes strengthening partnerships with international companies such as Nissan, Stellantis, and Al-Mansour, in addition to opening new factories for Chinese companies such as Geely and Exceed. And the Malaysian “Proton” factories, within the National Program for the Development of the Automotive Industry.

Since 2022, the Egyptian car market has been suffering from sharp fluctuations due to the foreign currency crisis and high import costs, which led to a decline in sales by 61.8% during the first nine months of 2023, reaching only 61 thousand vehicles compared to 159.8 thousand in 2022.

The crisis was exacerbated by import restrictions imposed by the government to reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves, which affected the availability of imported cars and spare parts. However, the market began to recover in 2024 with improved foreign currency inflows and increased investments in local manufacturing.

Source: RT