12th Algeria Motorshow & Trade Talk

The 12th Algerian motorshow opened yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, I could not attend the show because I had to travel to Casablanca. This is probably going to be the first Algerian motorshow that I will miss since I started working in Algeria.

According to feedback, the motorshow in Algeria is improving in terms of the quality of the booth designs and display models compared to 3 years ago. In my opinion, Peugeot and Toyota booths are setting the benchmark.

Also noteworthy was that last year, Mitsubishi brought in a Lancer Evolution as special exhibit. I think it's the ninth version. This year, not to be outdone, Nissan will be showcasing the 2008 GTR. I love the GTR but unfortunately I won't have the chance to touch this new model at the motorshow.

The signature tail-lights of GTR

As for us, I would love to see a special concept car on display during a motorshow in the future.

Friend of mine got a nice hybrid concept car for the motorshow in his country

I think that things are heating up in the Algerian automobile market. The market has been undergoing tremendous growth coupled with the rapid development of consumer financing and economic improvement. This is good news for us.

But a lot of companies are making more efforts to increase their sales in Algeria, so competition is going to get tougher. With the Free-Trade agreement with Europe, the French brands, which had traditionally dominated the market, will be benefiting from lower import duties and are definitely going to get their acts together.

However, as the economy will still take many more years before reaching maturity, Algerians will probably continue to go for lower-priced, entry segment cars. Which is good news for brands that specialize in cheap cars like Tata and Maruti.

To digress, Tata is really making inroads into the global automobile markets with the launch of Nano, a super cheap car with a retail sales price USD$2,000. According to recent news, Tata has bought Landrover and Jaguar to it's sprawling group. It's definitely a force to be reckon with.

Back to the point, I do find the Algerian market a tad uninteresting because it appears that the market is very price driven and customers are mainly attracted by low-priced cars with very basic specifications. I'm really curious to see that with the proliferation of consumer financing options from Societe Generale and Cetelem, will customers begin shifting towards higher end models like 308 or Auris? What do you think?