Electricity and fuel price hikes will impact negatively
Vehicle sales in February were more encouraging than we had expected for a shorter trading month than January.
“Overall dealer sales across all segments increased by almost 3 000 units month-on-month. It was heartening to see that passenger vehicle sales increased by almost 1 500 units and light commercial vehicle sales improved by close to 2 000 units,” said Mark Dommisse, chairperson of the National Automobile Dealers’ Association.
The upcoming electricity hike of 15,6 percent, increase in the fuel price and stock shortages at dealers are bound to have a negative effect on the market.
The latter he said is due to a global shortage in semiconductors.
“The total South African new vehicle market for February was 37 521 vehicles, which was 13,3% lower than the 43 296 units sold in the same month last year. Dealers performed well in the retail space, with an 84,3% share of the total market, with rental taking 10%, government 3,4% and sales to corporate fleets 2,3%.”
Exports were 8% below the figure for February 2020, just before Covid-19 had hit.
