Middle East Auto Marketing: Saudi and UAE 2025 Data

Automotive marketing in the Middle East in 2025 was led by Toyota, which held 28.6% of Saudi Arabia's 857,247 new vehicles and 24.4% of the UAE's 335,772, while Chinese brand Jetour grew 82.1% in the UAE. In 2026, Saudi sales fell 23.5% in the first half, according to Best Selling Cars Blog.

Facts current as of October 27, 2026. This page covers Saudi Arabia and the UAE only. Qatar, Kuwait and Oman are not yet covered with sourced data. Part of EPR's Automotive & Mobility coverage.

Which brands led Saudi Arabia's car market in 2025?

Toyota led Saudi Arabia's new vehicle market in 2025 with a 28.6% share, ahead of Hyundai at 15.9% and Kia at 7.8%. The market rose 3.6% to 857,247 units, its best annual result in 10 years, since the 879,704 units of 2015, Best Selling Cars Blog reported.

The Hyundai Accent was the best-selling model with a 5.4% share, up 15.3%. The Toyota Yaris Sedan fell 23.2% to second place, ahead of the Toyota Camry, and the source notes that adding the separately counted Camry hybrid would put the Camry nameplate first with more than 48,000 units. The Toyota Hilux ranked fourth and the Kia Pegas fifth.

Why it works: Toyota's lead rests on several nameplates at once, the Yaris Sedan, Camry, Hilux and Corolla, and not on one flagship. EPR's reading is that the Gulf's largest brand wins with breadth in the model ranking, the same discipline EPR describes in its 2026 automotive marketing playbook. For how Toyota communicates after supply and safety problems, see Toyota public relations.

Which brands led the UAE market in 2025?

Toyota led the UAE market in 2025 with a 24.4% share, while Nissan slipped to 14.1% from 16.5% in 2024. New vehicle sales rose 5.3% to 335,772 units, partly because BMW and Mini were added to the reported figures, Best Selling Cars Blog reported.

The Toyota Hilux was the best-selling model with a 5.7% share, up 35%, and the Jetour T2 ranked third. The source does not give Mercedes and Ford exact ranks, so the table shows them only as top-ten brands. For how Mercedes-Benz markets its luxury position, see EPR's Mercedes-Benz marketing strategy analysis.

How did Chinese brands change the Gulf market?

Chinese brands gained ground in the Gulf in 2025, but the growth came from a few SUV-led brands and not from every Chinese maker. In the UAE, Jetour became the best-selling Chinese brand, overtaking MG. In Saudi Arabia, Jetour rose 45.8% and Haval 64.6%, while Changan fell 11.1% and MG fell 7.7%.

The 2026 data points the same way. In the first half of 2026, Haval (up 48%) and Jetour (up 22.6%) were the only gainers in Saudi Arabia's top ten, and BYD ranked 18th with a 1% share. EPR's automotive AI citation share study found BYD near-invisible in US English answers, and the EV Citation Share Index covers the wider EV field.

What happened to the Saudi car market in 2026?

The Saudi new light vehicle market fell 23.5% year on year in the first half of 2026, to 313,458 units, losing almost 100,000 sales in one year, Best Selling Cars Blog reported. The source does not state a cause for the fall.

Toyota fell more slowly than the market, so its share rose. The Toyota Camry, now counted with its hybrid variant, was the best-selling model with a 6.3% share, one point ahead of the Hyundai Accent. The same publication's July 2026 headline reported Hyundai overtaking Toyota as the top brand for that month.

Where do Saudi Arabia's domestic EV makers stand?

Saudi Arabia's two domestic EV efforts, Ceer and Lucid's King Abdullah Economic City plant, are both still pre-volume in late 2026. Ceer, a joint venture between the Public Investment Fund and Foxconn, revealed its first two models, the Exobot sedan and SUV, on September 21, 2026, with sales in Saudi Arabia due in early 2027 and five mainstream models planned between 2028 and 2030, Reuters reported. Reuters also cited logistics and inflationary problems linked to the war on Iran among the challenges Ceer faces.

Lucid's plant is AMP-2, the company's second manufacturing plant after AMP-1 in Casa Grande, Arizona. It opened in September 2023 as Saudi Arabia's first car manufacturing facility. In its second-quarter 2026 statement, Lucid said the site was moving from construction to industrialisation and preparing for a 2027 production ramp, and in April it said construction of the complete-build factory was on track for completion by the end of 2026, with capacity designed to scale to 150,000 EVs a year, ZAWYA reported.

What can marketers take from the Gulf data?

Marketers can take three actions from the 2025 and 2026 figures, each tied to a result above. The table lists the move, the evidence and the check to run first.

For the other regional guides, see Latin America, Asia and Europe. The 25 best automotive marketing campaigns and the Automotive & Mobility hub map the rest of the section, and for Ford's wider record see Ford public relations. For help with an automotive program, see 5W's automotive marketing agency practice.

Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Everything-PR's editorial team.