Mahindra the maharaj in the shadow of Hilux, Ranger and D-Max

The Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max have entrenched themselves as South Africa’s top three bakkie players. But while the threesome hogs the headlines, a very interesting race between the so-called one-tonners is going on elsewhere.

The race for Mzansi’s fourth best-selling bakkie between the Mahindra Pik Up, Nissan Navara and GWM P-Series is an intriguing one. One that the old warhorse that is the Mahindra Pik Up is owning at this stage.

ALSO READ: New bakkie speed record? Police ‘clock’ GWM P-Series at 203 km/h

Navara adds spice

This three-pronged fight for fourth place started 25 months ago when Nissan rolled out the current generation Navara. The Navara started with bang on its return in July 2021 with sales of 701.

To put this into perspective, Mahindra only sold 190 Pik Ups that month and GWM 285 units of the P-Series. But the GWM P-Series continued its steady growth since its debut towards the end of 2020 and had overtaken the Navara by December 2021. GWM sold 724 of its flagship bakkie compared to the 477 Navaras during that month.

ALSO READ: Ford Ranger destroys Toyota Hilux Legend, closes in on GR-S

But in January 2022, the feisty Mahindra Pik Up changed the race for fourth for good. By selling 618 Pik Ups that month, they delivered a lusty blow both the Navara (441) and P-Series (539). And quite remarkably, the Indian carmaker has never relinquished the fourth place in the bakkie race.

Mahindra on the rise

In the 19 months since January 2022, a total of 13 186 Mahindra Pik Ups has been sold. Over the same period, 8 802 new Nissan Navaras found new homes. And GWM sold 6 909 P-Series were sold.

ALSO READ: New Ford Ranger gives Toyota Hilux workhorses food for thought

While the Mahindra stock has risen, the Navara outlook isn’t looking all that promising. While the Nissan bakkie was ahead of the GWM for 13 straight months from March 2022 to March 2023, the P-Series has fought back strongly of late. It moved up to fifth place from April and has closed the gap on the Nissan Navara for 2023 sales quite considerably.

After the first seven months of the year, Nissan has only sold nine more Navaras than GWM has sold P-Series. A total of 2 735 to 2 726.

With 2023 sales of 5 140, the Mahindra Pik Up is the undisputed fourth place runner in South Africa’s one-tonner bakkie race.