Lebanon Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Downtown Beirut perhaps?

Premium sales have been falling for the past three years as we see below. At least the downward trajectory is slowing (what it doesn't show is that sales were up 30% in 2015). The total each year is a round the 4,000 mark, which was 12% of the total market in 2018. Compared to NZ's 9.3%, that's quite high.

One thing I don't get is the world's obsession with German premium cars. They over achieve in a massive way. Well, in Lebanon, they get that. Buying is in a much more balanced way, with other brands doing well too as we see below.

For a start, JLR is top. They aren't even close to that in the UK, being well behind three big German brands. Crazy. Admittedly this is a more recent trend in Lebanon, with JLR moving from 4th to 1st in three years.

However, it goes well beyond JLR too. Infiniti have now passed Audi into 4th spot and you don't see that very often...actually never. Cadillac is breathing down Porsche's neck as well. How exciting! It's also common sense, which I must applaud the Lebanese car buyer for.

Years			Brand	2018		2017		2016
16	17	18	Total	3,987	-3.0	4,112	-3.6	4,265	-10.6
4	3	1	JLR	934	23.4	683	16.6	431	10.1
			Land Rover	662	16.6	462	11.2	283	6.6
			Jaguar	272	6.8	221	5.4	148	3.5
1	1	2	Mercedes	839	21.0	983	23.9	1,069	25.1
2	2	3	BMW Group	468	11.7	708	17.2	954	22.4
			BMW	318	8.0	502	12.2	742	17.4
			MINI	150	3.8	206	5.0	212	5.0
5	5	4	Infiniti	461	11.6	407	9.9	359	8.4
3	4	5	Audi	442	11.1	482	11.7	540	12.7
6	6	6	Porsche	254	6.4	292	7.1	282	6.6
7	7	7	Cadillac	225	5.6	195	4.7	203	4.8
8	8	8	Volvo	198	5.0	179	4.4	196	4.6
9	9	9	Lexus	77	1.9	81	2.0	169	4.0
10	10	10	Maserati	55	1.4	52	1.3	62	1.5

France / Italy JLR Comparison : 2010-18

These two nations are quite close both in size and geographically. Italy has averaged 1.75 million sales over the past nine years, while France have just exceeded 2 million. So which nation prefers JLR products?

The data: Both nations have some Land Rovers registered as commercial vehicles so are not included here. As the numbers aren't excessively different, that cancels each other out on that point.

Italy shows more partiality for LR, with 82.4% of sales when the brands are combined. However, Jaguar has made a big gain recently, over a third in 2018. France still favours LR too but 'only' with a 77.9% advantage. It too has seen a swing to the 'Leaping Cat' recently.

	Italy						France
	1,741,275						2,017,518
Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag		Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag
10	9,493	1,599	11,092	14.4		10	2,735	1,126	3,861	29.2
11	9,064	1,264	10,328	12.2		11	4,317	1,001	5,318	18.8
12	12,546	1,202	13,748	8.7		12	7,770	897	8,667	10.3
13	12,559	991	13,550	7.3		13	6,716	879	7,595	11.6
14	12,868	995	13,863	7.2		14	6,794	715	7,509	9.5
15	15,857	1,650	17,507	9.4		15	8,846	1,530	10,376	14.7
16	18,793	4,915	23,708	20.7		16	10,388	3,738	14,126	26.5
17	18,676	5,316	23,992	22.2		17	9,079	3,541	12,620	28.1
18	17,356	9,257	26,613	34.8		18	6,803	4,580	11,383	40.2
Tot	127,212	27,189	154,401	17.6		Tot	63,448	18,007	81,455	22.1
%	0.81	0.17	0.99			%	0.35	0.10	0.45

Summary: As a total of sales, JLR has 1% of the market in Italy, well ahead of the French figure of just 0.45%. So JLR vehicles are over twice as popular in Italy. I thought it would have been closer. I think the Italians and the British, while very different, have always had a bit of a fascination with each other. 

Germany / Russia JLR Comparison : 2010-18

Not so long back, Russia was touted to become the largest car market in Europe by volume but things didn't pan out that way. Sales tumbled and JLR wasn't immune as we can see below. From 2010 to 2018, an average of 2.1 million cars and LCVs were sold, compared to Germany's 3.2 million passenger cars. In addition, some Land Rovers are sold as LCVS which aren't counted although not a huge number. Therefore, it's not an absolutely accurate head to head but not that far off it.

The data: Until recently, Land Rover has heavily outsold Jaguar in Russia. Over the nine years Jaguar only as 10% of the sales. In Germany it has been more consistent and evenly spread, the nine years having Jaguar at 27%.

Again over the nine year period, LR has achieved 0.65% of total sales in Russia and combined 0.72%. Adding LCVs into the total pushes the percentage down a little. Then to Germany, where the total is 0.64%. So JLR has a stronger presence in Russia that Germany.

	Russia						Germany
	2,132,908						3,177,366
Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag		Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag
10	9,970	858	10,828	7.9		10	6,580	3,166	9,746	32.5
11	13,183	1,147	14,330	8.0		11	6,674	3,094	9,768	31.7
12	19,043	1,465	20,508	7.1		12	11,113	3,197	14,310	22.3
13	21,030	1,681	22,711	7.4		13	12,425	4,160	16,585	25.1
14	21,148	1,628	22,776	7.1		14	14,679	4,229	18,908	22.4
15	11,605	972	12,577	7.7		15	18,216	5,006	23,222	21.6
16	9,122	2,073	11,195	18.5		16	22,799	8,713	31,512	27.6
17	8,883	2,173	11,056	19.7		17	23,656	8,987	32,643	27.5
18	9,840	2,537	12,377	20.5		18	18,141	9,500	27,641	34.4
Tot	123,824	14,534	138,358	10.5		Tot	134,283	50,052	184,335	27.2
%	0.65	0.08	0.72			%	0.47	0.18	0.64

Summary: Considering that Germans buy many more premium cars than Russians makes the higher Russian penetration more pronounced than what the cold facts show. Counterbalancing that, Germany has strong support for its own premium brands over foreign ones.