Hilux still leads as April new vehicle sales decrease

After posting a recovery in March, South Africa’s new vehicle sales dived back into the red in April despite being well and truly up on last year’s Covid-19 battered figures.

According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), April’s sales dropped by 17.6% to 35 779 from the 43 428 recorded in March this year with all of the various segments also decreasing.

Total passenger vehicle numbers declined by 13.9% from the 26 599 in March to 22 911, while light commercial vehicles dropped by a massive 24.3% from March’s 14 364 to 10 879.

Ordinarily mixed, medium and heavy duty commercial vehicle sales ended April down across the board with the former declining by 24.2% to 511 units and the latter by 17.5% for a total of 1 478.

Hardest hit during the month, whose decline NAAMSA attributes to the number of public holidays, was exports with the 26 522 units shipped signalling a downturn of 32.2% from March’s 39 141.

“Although the new vehicle market in 2021 is expected to rebound substantially compared to 2020, aggregate new vehicle sales in 2020 dropped back to the level of 18 years ago and a recovery to the pre-Covid-19 level would take at least three years,” NAAMSA said.

Out of the best performing manufactures, Toyota continued to remain on top with sales of 8 810 units, followed by Volkswagen (6 017), Hyundai (2 632), Ford (2 471), Suzuki (2 244), Nissan (1 727), Isuzu (1 638), Renault (1 432), BMW (1 199) and Kia (1 133).

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