Zimbabwe’s Vehicle Market in 2025 is expanding . Full-year sales grew 16.8%, led by Toyota which still retains the large majority of the market. Despite the impressive gains, the country stays at the bottom of Africa’s rankings.
Economic Environment
The 2025 forecasts for Zimbabwe are notably strong, with GDP projected to grow by 6.6%, driven by a rebound in agriculture, solid services performance, and continued investment in mining and steel. This would place Zimbabwe ahead of many of its Sub-Saharan African peers, while medium-term growth is also expected to remain robust at around 5% in 2026. Macroeconomic conditions have improved as tight monetary policy since late 2024 has helped stabilize the ZiG currency and bring inflation under control. Inflation is expected to fall to single digits in 2026 and decline further toward 5% over the medium term, which should support household purchasing power and broader stability.
Still, major structural barriers to private sector growth remain, including heavy and often regressive regulatory fees, poor transparency, paper-based compliance systems, and overlapping mandates across government agencies. In some sectors, firms face as many as 28 regulatory requirements, creating high costs and delays with limited policy benefit, especially for SMEs.
With sustained growth through most of the year, Zimbabwe’s vehicle market reported an overall expansion of 16.8% in 2025.
Brand-wise, the leader was still Toyota which secured 30.2% of the market while growing 19.9%, followed by Volkswagen, up 19.1% in sales with 10.1% market share. Chevrolet ranked in 3rd with 9.9% market share and a 23.1% increase in yearly volume.
Medium-Term Market Share
Zimbabwe’s new vehicle market expanded steadily through 2013, when sales reached a peak of 7,860 units. It then declined sharply as the economic crisis pushed demand toward cheaper used vehicles, dropping to 3,754 units in 2016 and 3,345 units in 2017. After four consecutive years of contraction, the market showed signs of recovery in 2018, with registrations rising to 3,800 units (+13.6%).
That rebound was short-lived, however, as sales fell below 3,000 units in 2019, reaching 2,637, which was one of the lowest levels of the decade and down 42.8% from 2018. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the market remained weak but relatively stable, with 2,603 units sold in 2020, a modest 1.3% decline from 2019. The downturn continued in 2021, when new light vehicle sales dropped another 7.1% to 2,417 units.
In the following years, volumes stayed subdued, with sales at 2,026 units in 2022, improving to 2,065 units in 2023, and then rising further to 2,223 units in 2024.
