The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a dramatic change in the sale of motor vehicles after freights charges shot up last year.
Simba Colt Motors General Manager Francis Kariuki confirmed the freight charges which were initially at an estimated 800 US dollars shot up to 2000 US dollars.
“The move led to the rise in the cost of assembling the vehicles locally,” he pointed out.
Kariuki said he is optimistic things will change with the lowering of freight charges which will bring down the cost of locally assembled vehicles.
He was speaking during the marking of this year’s happy customer service week at the company’s showroom in Mvita constituency, Mombasa county.
The Simba Colt Motors General Manager said during the post pandemic period there was no issue of shortage of space for storage of containers.
Kariuki said he is confident the situation will improve so that they can embark on the promise they had given President Uhuru Kenyatta during his fact finding tour at the Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) in Miritini in December last year of the Malaysian Proton Saga saloon cars
He said the company stands by its promise they had made to make available the vehicle in the local market at an affordable price.
“The second hand vehicles is the second biggest business in the county,” he said.
The company branch boss told journalists when one walks around showrooms they will see that imported vehicles have flooded the local market.
Kariuki said the imported vehicles are giving local assembly companies sleepless nights but vowed to soldier on with their business.
Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]