In Kenya, the majority share of 72% preferrence rate chose Toyota. Subaru was in second place. Mercedes Benz, Honda and BMW took the 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively. The preference remains the same in South, East and West Africa where majority of the respondents choose Toyota. South Africa was a bit different, the highest ranking brand was Volkwagen, followed by Toyota, Ford, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Hyundai and Audi. The report goes further to investigate the percentage of the population that owns cars in each country’s population. Under this metric, Algeria emerges first with 43% of its population owing a car, South Africa is second with 37%, followed by Zimbabwe 33% and Namibia 30%. Sagaci Research Managing Director, Julien Garcier, affirmed that certain cultural norms and inequalities still caused a hindrance to car ownership for women and the lower classes. “While in Europe, ownership of cars is slightly declining in favour of shared ownership or rental, car ownership still has a long way to go across the African continent and remains a distant dream for many. Some brands have figured this out and seem to be surfing the wave, but this changes rapidly,” he stated. In addition he added that “Interestingly, in certain countries, car ownership amongst the lower income groups (SEC DE – monthly income below 250 USD) was well above the continent’s average of 17% – in Guinea 26% within SEC DE reported owning a car – likely due to the country’s fewer vehicle regulations”.
