The UAE should consider making the sales figures and registrations of commercial vehicles public in order to significantly boost competition among manufacturers, says the dealer of Isuzu in the Emirates.
Consolidated sales and/or registration figures can help manufacturers assess their performance and market share against competitors, notes Anton du Plessis, general manager – Isuzu sales division at GENAVCO.
This approach is already in place in markets like Europe, where bodies like the European Automobile Manufacturers Association regularly release data on registrations for passenger and commercial vehicles, alongside economic and market reports.
“There’s no centralised consolidation of sales within the UAE,” du Plessis says. “It’s very difficult to get the data in terms of which manufacturer has sold what.”
As a manufacturer from Japan, Isuzu gets data from the country on the performance of Japanese manufacturers and can only assess its sales in relation to them. This naturally doesn’t account for other players in the market. “There are manufacturers that come from China, Korea, Europe, US, you name it. But we have no idea what sales they bring in, so it becomes difficult.”
If the government was to gather data from vehicle sales and registrations and consolidate it into a report specifying what each manufacturer had sold, it would benefit the market, he says. “That’s one thing that would help this industry tremendously, because then, all manufacturers can be more competitive.
By ascertaining the kinds of vehicles in demand, manufacturers can also tailor their offerings accordingly. “You can spec the product in accordance with what the customers want. You don’t have to waste time on low entry-level spec vehicles when the full option models are actually what the customer wants.”
