Although not present within the top 10 best-sellers, the new Toyota Land Cruiser Prado emerged as the biggest surprise of the June with unit sales of 694, its highest in recent memory. Image: Toyota
Despite a minor uptake over May’s figures, South Africa’s new vehicle sales remained negative in June for a 10th month out of 11 so far.
Similarly, individual model sales, still below 2 500 units, increased marginally over May with the segment-leading Toyota Hilux’s offset in June amounting to 2 435 units versus the previous month’s 2 367.
Taking second by a deficit of 110 units, the Volkswagen Polo’s 2 325 saw it being the only vehicle within the top 10 to crack 2 000 units sales.
Finishing third, one down from May, the Ford Ranger placed ahead of the Isuzu D-Max with sales of 1 868 versus 1 794, while the Toyota Corolla Cross slipped a position to fifth with 1 578 examples sold.
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Emerging as the biggest highlight, the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro’s two position jump sees it become the country’s best-selling non-locally produced vehicle in usurping long-time favourites the Suzuki Swift, Toyota Starlet and Hyundai Grand i10.
Just pipping the Starlet by one unit – 1 172 vs 1 171 – the Tiggo 4 Pro also ranked above the Swift (1 073) and Grand i10 (996) as one of only four imported vehicles within the first 10, and the only one to emerge from China.
Completing the top 10, the Durban-built Toyota Fortuner recorded one of its best months of the year so far with total sales of 972 units.
Outside the top 10, the Mahindra netted one of its strongest showings of the year with 829 vehicles sold, although the biggest surprise was provided by the new Toyota Land Cruiser Prado’s 694 – its highest in recent memory.
Despite the long awaited announcement of the seventh democratic administration towards the end of June by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the monthly sales by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa) of South Africa registered a dip of 14% from last year’s 46 603 to 40 072.
Bar one, all of the various segments nosedived with passenger vehicles being best of the worst on 26 928, a drop of nine percent from June 2023’s 29 599.
Hit significantly harder, light commercial vehicles shed 24.3% to end June on 10 552 compared to 13 397 recorded last year.
Taking the biggest hit though, medium-duty commercial vehicles dropped 27.7% from 734 to 531, while heavy-duty commercials lost 11.7% for a total of 2 061 compared to 2 333 twelve months ago.
For only the second time this year, exports bucked the downwards trend by reporting an increase of 3.6% from last year’s 27 329, to 28 306.
Welcoming the seventh administration, as well as the appointment of Parks Tau as the new Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, Naamsa stated, “Cumulative new vehicle sales for the first six months of the year were now tracking 7.6% below the corresponding period 2023, in-line with industry expectations of a taxing first half of the year.
“However, the markets seem to have responded positively to the announcement of the new Cabinet and along with a third month of no load-shedding, a further welcomed relief at the fuel pumps in July 2024 and likely lower interest rates to commence before year-end, brighter economic prospects for the second half of the year are steadily improving”.
Out of the country’s 10 best-selling brands, an unchanged top six from May prevailed with Toyota (9 743) placing ahead of Volkswagen (5 514), Suzuki (4 297), Ford (2 404), Hyundai (2 367) and Isuzu (2 157).
Improving a single notch to seventh though at the expense of Chery, Nissan recorded 1 905 unit sales compared to the Chinese’s 1 653.
Keeping station in ninth on 1 307, Great Wall Motors ranked above a resurgent BMW, whose 1 104 saw it jump Renault and Kia to place within the top 10 for first time in more than a year.
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