The price of second-hand car imports could soon increase as the government considers reducing the age limit for used cars. The plan is based on efforts to boost the support for local car assemblies as more car manufacturers establish their operations in the country.
Speaking at the opening of spare parts manufacturing plant Autosprings East Africa, Adan Mohamed, CS Industrialisation said the government will create a policy to reduce the age limit from the current eight years to enable domestic assemblers to compete favourably.
“We need to change the motor vehicle entry program for second-hand vehicles into our country to make sure that the age of vehicles coming here is much shorter than it currently is,” Mohamed said. “I know it’s a sensitive issue and that people need cars to get from one point to another.”
Since 2016, car manufacturers such as Volkswagen and Peugeot have established local assembly plants with Toyota. Nissan is also set to build an assembly plant in Kenya, targeting the regional market. The plant will assemble pick-up trucks from semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits.
CS Mohamed said the ministry would engage motor vehicle stakeholders as they plan to impose age limits on second-hand car imports.
The plan entails having vehicle manufacturers increase the number of locally produced cars in order to decrease the import age limit rule.
“The challenge is on the current motor vehicle assemblers. As we see [the] additional increase in production of new vehicles then we will reduce the age of [second-hand] cars that are coming,” Mohamed said.
Second-hand cars are attractive to Kenyans because of their affordability.
