Three million female drivers will be added to the Kingdom’s roads by 2020 – report
Saudi Arabia’s automotive ecosystem is set for a rapid transformation in the coming years, with 20% of the female population, or three million drivers, expected to be added to the Kingdom’s roads by 2020, a recent whitepaper stated.
An October 2018 report said the lifting of the ban on women driving in Saudi as of June 2018, along with recovering oil prices and economic policies aimed at boosting consumer spending, will result in an 8% per annum increase of passenger vehicles sales until 2022.
The whitepaper, published by global research company Aranca, added that in addition to new car sales, the positive impact of a new customer segment over the next 1-3 years will be felt in the Kingdom’s automotive aftermarket, which was valued at US$ 7.4bn in 2017.
According to Aranca, car parc (vehicles in operation), in Saudi Arabia stood at 7.3mn in 2017, with 438,000 new passenger cars and 110,000 new commercial vehicles sold for the year. Tyres accounted for the greatest slice of revenue in the Saudi’s spare parts market, with a 30% share in 2017 (US$ 2.2bn), followed by lubricants (US$ 1.4bn), batteries (US$ 400mn), and other components (US$ 3.4bn).
Many of these opportunities will likely arise in Saudi’s western regions of Madinah and Makkah, where more than one million women are expected to get behind the wheel by 2020.
Meanwhile, rising vehicle parc is setting the stage for solid growth in the Kingdom’s aftermarket. Aranca said 10 million vehicles will ply Saudi roads by 2022, including 6.5 million passenger vehicles and 3.5 million commercial vehicles. As a result, demand for spare parts and related auto services will grow 6% annually, reaching a value of US$ 9.8bn in 2022.
Aranca’s whitepaper was published ahead of the 3rd edition of Automechanika Jeddah 2019 to take place in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea commercial port city in February of next year.
