New car sales estimated to reach 45,000 units this year

The car-making sector has been developing since 1995 and new car sales are scheduled to reach this year 45,000 units, said chairman of the car-making federation, Abdellatif Ajana.

The professional told "Auto-Magazine" Morocco has a potential to sell 100,000 new cars annually but this ceiling could not be reached in view of weak investments and lower purchasing power caused by three years of drought.

He argued that a specific loaning policy with attractive interest rates should be promoted and cars accessible for middle-income populations should be produced in the range of 50,000 to 60,000 DH (US$ 4,500 to 5,000) to prevent massive purchase of second-hand cars.

He further explained that before 1995 the car-making sector was affected by the importation of used cars (92,000 second-hand imported cars were sold in Morocco, compared to 15,000 new cars) but after a series of measures the trade knew a remarkable growth as the sale of new cars went up from 15,000 to 45,000 in 2001 and the sale of used cars regressed from 92,000 to 15,000 units.

Among these measures, he cited the assembling in Morocco of a low-cost car exempted from customs duties and carrying a reduced VAT of 7% instead of 20%, lowering customs duties for imported new cars and increasing them for imported used cars.