Lebanon 2024. Vehicle Market Rises Steadily But Still Trails Pre-Covid Levels

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Lebanon Vehicles Market in 2024 grew 7.8%, marking its fifth consecutive year of expansion. Still, sales remained below pre-COVID levels. Top 10 brands saw significant shifts, with Suzuki emerging as the strongest performer, while Renault plummeted.

Economic Environment

In 2024, Lebanon’s real GDP is projected to contract by 5.7%, amounting to a $4.2 billion loss in consumption and net exports, primarily due to the ongoing conflict. This decline deepens the cumulative contraction since 2019 to over 38%, reflecting severe economic distress. The conflict has significantly disrupted private consumption, destroyed infrastructure, and displaced populations, exacerbating Lebanon’s pre-existing macroeconomic challenges. 

The economic crisis has also widened Lebanon’s fiscal deficit, as rising financing needs strain limited resources and VAT revenues decline. With sovereign default restricting access to capital markets, comprehensive debt restructuring is deemed necessary to restore financial credibility. 

Automotive Industry Trend and Outlook 

In 2024, Lebanon’s EV sector saw significant progress, growing by 39%. However, EV adoption remains slow compared to other countries in the region due to insufficient infrastructure and low public awareness.

Toyota dominated EV sales, capturing over 50% of the market, while Lexus surged 485.3% into second place, positioning itself as a strong competitor. Other brands struggled to gain traction.

Overall, the Lebanese vehicle market expanded by 7.8% in 2024, marking its fifth consecutive year of growth. Yet, sales still fall short of pre-COVID 2019 levels.

Looking at full-year data for 2024 brand-wise, Toyota retained its leadership with a 33.5% increase, followed by Nissan, which surged 73.7%. Despite a 37.7% decline, Mitsubishi held onto third place. Lexus climbed one spot to fourth with a 14.3% gain, while Kia, despite a 26.3% drop, still managed to move up to fifth place.

Looking at the best selling models,the Toyota Land Cruiser jumped two spots to become Lebanon’s best-selling vehicle, soaring 177.1%. The Nissan Sunny, despite growing 134.5%, slipped to second place.

Medium-Term Market Trend

The car market was stable in the range of 35K to 45K, apart the peak achieved in 2017 when the all time record was established at 52,916.

In the following two years, the hard economic difficulties due to the reduced price of oil and the huge number of refugee from Syria, reduced the industry at 34,258 (2019) which was the lowest in 10 years.

The covid 19 spread severely hit the market in 2020 with a huge 62.2% fall, one of the sharpest in the World, to only 12,934 units and even today the market is not recovering.

Indeed, in 2021 the increase was at mere 2% and this year the trend is only moderately positive, while annual volumes are at the lowest in the last 30 years.

Tables with sales figures

In the tables below we report sales for the Top 10 Models

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