The share of locally assembled vehicles has jumped to a new peak of 78.1 per cent of all new automotive sales as formal dealers benefit from government incentives aimed at encouraging local production.
Data from the Kenya Motor Vehicle Industry Association (KMI) shows that firms including Isuzu East Africa and Simba Corporation assembled 9,345 units out of the total of 11,962 new vehicles sold in the eleven months that ended November.
The share of locally assembled vehicles has been rising sharply in recent years.
The latest data shows that it climbed from the previous peak of 70.6 per cent in the year ended December 2021.
Companies strong in local production have linked their rising fortunes to support from the government which has enacted favourable policies like tax exemptions besides being one of the biggest buyers of new vehicles.
The KMI data shows that Isuzu East Africa raised its output to 5,422 units in the 11-month period compared to 4,931 the year before.
This saw the Japanese dealer account for 58 per cent of the total assembled units, underlining the popularity of its Isuzu brand of pick-ups, buses and trucks.
DT Dobie more than doubled its output to 552 vehicles, with the dealer recently expanding the list of models it puts together at the Thika-based Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers.
The company, which started with the assembly of the Volkswagen Polo Vivo car, added the Mercedes Benz Actros 3340 and 2640 models to the assembly line in May.
The dealer had churned out a total of 67 units of the trucks at the end of September, according to the KMI data.
CFAO Motors (Toyota Kenya) assembled 1,487 vehicles in the 11-month period, declining from 1,848 the year before. The dealer has the second-largest market share in terms of assembled volume at 15.9 per cent.
Simba Corp ranked third with a 12.9 per cent share, which saw its output fall to 1,213 from 1,368.
The dealer plans to assemble Pajero Sport and Proton X70 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) at its Mombasa plant from next year, expanding the lineup of vehicles it produces including Mitsubishi trucks.
The volume of the local assembly is expected to rise further as the players take advantage of the government incentives that seek to aid in industrialisation, technology adoption and skills transfer.
In one of the latest policies, suspended temporarily due to a court case, the Kenya Bureau of Standards published a notice that sought to ban imports of used buses more than seven metres in length effective July 1.
