July auto sales jump 15.6% y-o-y, as buses, trucks outpace passenger cars

Egypt’s auto market grew 15.6% y-o-y in July to 18k units (+3.3% m-o-m), with buses and trucks once again outpacing passenger cars, according to AMIC’s July 2026 report (pdf). Passenger cars — still the largest slice at 71% of volume — rose 4.1% m-o-m to 12.9k units, while buses jumped 62% to 1.8k units and trucks climbed 37.3% to 3.3k units. That’s a reversal from June, when passenger cars posted a rare 2.3% y-o-y decline — a dip Auto Traders Association President Osama Abu El Magd told us wasn’t a red flag, given the market’s small base and AMIC’s incomplete brand coverage, which excludes several major players, including all German marques.

Buses still did more of the heavy lifting than the headline suggests. Transport Micro buses — the workhorse category — rose 58.2% y-o-y to 1.3k units and still made up 71% of the segment. Transport Micro Micro, a category that barely registered a year ago (five units), jumped to 92. Tourism Micro grew 71.4% y-o-y to 247 units. The pattern echoes June, when tourism sub-segments also outperformed — Tourism Micro alone had jumped 147% m-o-m that month — suggesting the summer travel season is still pulling bus demand along.

Trucks rose roughly 9% m-o-m to 3.3k units. While heavy trucks more than doubled y-o-y (+113.5%, to 111 units), they pulled back 47.6% m-o-m from June’s 212 units — a swing that Cars by Maged’s Maged El Tawil told us in June is typical for the category, since a single real-estate developer or infrastructure fleet order can distort the line m-o-m. Meanwhile, pickups – the segment’s dominant category at 65% of truck volume — grew a steady 11% m-o-m to 2.2k.

EVs went from growth story to sharp stall, at least by the report’s numbers. July’s 140 EV units dropped 60.1% m-o-m from June’s 351. While AMIC figures likely undercount EVs due to non-member importers, the drop lands directly ahead of a live policy debate over a proposed 5% tariff on imported EVs meant to protect local assembly — an idea industry leaders argue will raise consumer costs without helping domestic manufacturing.

The CBU-CKD gap in passenger cars widened, yet again. July PC sales broke down to roughly 5.4k locally assembled (CKD) units against about 7.5k fully built imports (CBU), widening the gap to nearly 2.1k units in CBU’s favor. Commercial vehicles stayed far more localized: July figures put trucks at 83.5% CKD and buses at 74.3% CKD.

OUR TAKE- This CKD-CBU contrast highlights how differently incentive structures play out across the two segments. While commercial fleet operators prioritize domestic assembly for local parts availability and bottom-line cost efficiency, PC buyers are still heavily drawn to CBU imports for brand prestige, higher-end specs, and perceived build quality. Looking ahead, Al Mansour Automotive’s USD 150 mn MG plant in 6th of October City — targeting 50k units in initial capacity — could start lifting passenger car CKD shares as production ramps up.