Pre- owned Japanese vehicles dominate the industry

Imports of second hand cars still dominate the local motor industry, Statistics Botswana ( SB), the data authority has revealed in its latest Transport and Infrastructure Stats Brief for the fourth quarter of 2023. The transport and infrastructure statistics covers motor vehicle registrations, rail and air transport statistics. According to the report, a total of 11,540 vehicles were registered for the first time in fourth quarter of which 74.7 percent were passenger cars. “Used vehicles made up 78.5 percent of the vehicles registered for the first time, while brand new and re- built vehicles made up 21.4 and 0.1 percent respectively,” said Acting Statistician General, Dr. Lucky Mokgatlhe. With the bulk of new registered vehicles being preowned vehicles, 66.9 percent were from Japan while United Kingdom registered the least number of vehicles with 0.6 percent of the total, according to Statistics Botswana.

“Majority of brand new vehicles were from South Africa at 76.6 percent of the total. Most used vehicles originated from Japan at 84.8 percent of total used vehicles. Passenger cars made up 85.9 percent of total used cars,” said Dr. Mokgatlhe. He said most of the vans were brand new, making 71.5 percent of total vans. Meanwhile, the Toyota motor vehicle had the highest number of vehicles registered for the first time at 23.5 percent of the total while Mazda and Honda followed with 17.6 and 15.9 percent of the total respectively. With the last quarter of the year registering high sales, a total of 4,151 vehicles were registered for the first time in the month of December, constituting 36.0 percent of the total vehicles registered in the quarter while November and October made up 33.5 and 30.6 percent of the first registrations respectively. On the other hand, the capital Gaborone recorded the highest number of vehicles registered for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2023, at 65.3 percent of the total while Francistown and Lobatse recorded 8.8 and 5.7 percent of the total respectively.

Statistic Botswana has indicated motor vehicle license renewals during the quarter under review totaled of 162,634 motor vehicle licenses were renewed with most of motor vehicle license renewals done in December at 35.2 percent of the total while November and October accounted for 34.4 and 30.4 percent respectively. The Toyota make motor vehicle license renewal made up 43.7 percent of the total and motor vehicle license renewals for Mazda and Honda motor vehicles followed with 8.9 and 7.7 percent respectively.