Sales volume of new motor vehicle Saudi Arabia 2005-2023
In 2023, approximately 759 thousand passenger cars and commercial vehicles were sold to customers in Saudi Arabia. That marked an increase compared to the previous year, in which 616.5 thousand passenger cars and commercial vehicles were sold in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia, a key player in the regional automobile sector
As of 2022, Saudi Arabia has joined the trillion-dollar club, a term used to describe economies with a gross domestic product exceeding one trillion U.S. dollars. Unsurprisingly, the Kingdom is the biggest vehicle market among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Moreover, Saudi Arabia dominated both passenger and commercial car sales in the Middle East and North African region in 2021. Followed by Hyundai, Toyota held the largest market share of new car sales in the Kingdom in 2021. Meanwhile, the year-on-year change of commercial vehicle sales in Saudi Arabia was forecast to grow by 3.1 and 2.6 percent in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
A large economy with big challenges
Saudi Arabia is home to one of the world’s youngest populations, with inhabitants aged between 15 and 24 years old exceeding 13 percent of the total population in 2020. While the young population drives the economy forward as it enters the working age, at the current stage, the Kingdom is more concerned with providing enough employment than with the issue of not having enough labor force. To illustrate, Saudi Arabia has the highest youth unemployment rate in the G20, which translates as the highest youth unemployment rate among the GCC countries. Another feature of the Kingdom’s economy is the gender disparity in labor force participation, with a 74 percent gap in women's labor force participation in 2016.
