New vehicle sales recovery continue in October

South Africa’s new vehicle sales remained on the up in October despite being down on the figures recorded last year. According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), overall sales, while up from September’s 37 403, decreased by 25.4% from 2019’s 51 968 to 38 752 units.

Individual segments were down across the aboard with new passenger vehicle sales falling by 25.4% from 35 899 to 26 793 and light commercial vehicles by 27.8% from 13 361 to 9 644. Both were however up on the 33 120 and 12 267 recorded in September.

Often bucking the downwards trend, the sales of medium and heavy duty commercial vehicles contracted by 21.2% and 11.5% respectively, thus settling the month on 662 and 1 653, down on the 680 and 1 658 recorded in September. Despite also improving on September’s 28 704, vehicle exports, compared to October last year, ended in the red with a decline of 18.9% from 41 266 to 33 474.

“New vehicle sales in South Africa are slowly picking up but not at 2019 levels yet. We are not out of the woods yet. While vehicle exports are making a steady comeback, we remain cautiously anxious about the reports of a Covid-19 second wave across Europe which could further,” NAAMSA CEO Mikel Mabasa said.

Out of the best performing manufactures, Toyota headed arch rivals Volkswagen with sales of 9 179 versus 6 365 with Ford placing third on 3 738 ahead of Hyundai (2 781), Nissan (2 569), Suzuki (2 032), Renault (1 673), Mercedes-Benz (1 574), Kia (1 478) and Isuzu (1 425).

As for the best performing vehicles, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo ended the month on top with 2 259 sales ahead of the Ford Ranger (2 203), with the biggest and unexpected shock being the 1 390 sales amassed by the Toyota Hilux, a figure that places it not only behind the Ranger but down in fourth position behind the Volkswagen Polo (1 589).

The Toyota Fortuner continued its reign as the country’s best-selling SUV with 1 349 units moved ahead of its HiAce stablemate (1 265), the Nissan NP200 (1 230) and the Isuzu D-Max (1 131). Toyota’s replacement for the Etios, the Suzuki Baleno-badged Starlet, finished its first full month in ninth with 1 102 units with the Corolla Quest completing the top ten with 850 units.

OCTOBER TOP 50 BEST SELLERS

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