According to the Kenya Motor Vehicle Industry Association (KMI) vehicle companies led by Scania East Africa and Isuzu East Africa sold 387 units to Uganda and Tanzania by December 2022. Tanzania took up the lion's share with 241 units while Uganda took 146 units.
Kenyan new vehicle dealers doubled exports in East Africa and have boasted internal capacity to increase supply in neighbouring countries notably Uganda and Tanzania.
Car dealers boast 60 percent capacity as Uganda boosts local vehicle assembling
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The performance was miles from the 193 units exports in 2021.
The majority of the exports were commercial vehicles like trucks, pick-ups, and prime movers. The Scania prime mover in the P360 series is the leading export model.
The Chief Executive of Isuzu, Rita Kavashe said in an interview that they still have an unutilised 60 percent capacity to increase production.
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“Our capacity utilisation currently is about 40 percent where we are producing about 5,000 trucks. We have the capacity to scale up regionally in terms of production capability,” she said.
She said greater preference for second-hand vehicles and high age limits have forced formal dealers into performing under their full capacity.
“The East Africa market size is about 200,000 vehicles annually. Out of this, 40,000 are commercial trucks and pick-ups. So, while in Kenya we assemble about 11,00 vehicles, in the region there is a big opportunity. We have three plants in Kenya and they are operating at 40 percent of their capacity,” she said.
“These three plants have the capacity to supply commercial trucks to the entire East African region. Uganda and Tanzania with less stringent age limits similarly have second-hand imports comprising approximately 85 percent of their motor vehicle sales each year.”
The Ugandan government has been incentivising to support the local vehicle assembly industry. One of the incentives is tax exemption from import duty which stands at 25 percent.
