Toyota Vitz has been the surprise performer of the final monthly vehicle sales roster of 2023. Picture: Toyota
In a turnaround from how the year started, new vehicle sales ended 2023 on a false note with a fifth consecutive decrease in December.
Although it kept its position as the country’s best-selling vehicle for an 11th month, the exception being May, when it finished second behind its arch rival, the Ford Ranger, sales of the Toyota Hilux again dipped below 3 000 units with a total of 2 858 units moved.
In a reversal from November, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo swapped places with the Ranger to place second on 2 448 versus 1 936, with the Toyota Corolla Cross keeping station in fourth place, but only just, on 1 932.
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Providing the biggest surprise, the Toyota Vitz placed fifth with sales of 1 358 units, its best performance since debuting in April last year as the replacement for the Ayga.
In sixth, seventh and eighth places, the Toyota HiAce, Isuzu D-Max and Toyota Starlet were the only other vehicles to sell more than 1 000 units with respective sales of 1 056, 1 023 and 1 013.
Completing the top 10 in a near balanced showing of locally built and imported models, was the Suzuki Swift (967) and the Renault Triber with one of its best showings of the year (911).
The month’s poor showing being attributed not only to shorter business hours as a result of the festive season, but also the ongoing economic struggles and energy crisis, the figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) showed an overall decrease of 3.3% in December from 2022’s 41 721 to 40 329.
In the respective segments, three ended the month in the red, namely passenger vehicle sales that lost 3.9%, light commercial vehicles 2.9% and medium-duty commercial vehicles with the most severe at 24.2%.
Going the other way, heavy-duty commercial vehicles ended 2023 on a high with an uptake of 13.9%, while exports rose 1.2% from 26 295 to 26 612. Besides the latter, no detailed figures for the other segments were disclosed.
Despite the negative year-end finish, the industry’s early year performance of three to four months of back-to-back growth resulted in an overall yearly increase of 0.5% from 2022 with a total of 532 098 vehicles sold versus 529 556.
More crucial though, vehicle exports recorded its biggest total since 2019 with a 12.7% increase from 2022’s 351 785 to 396 290.
“The new vehicle market’s prolonged recovery from the pandemic stuttered towards the second half of 2023, following two previous years of sound rebound. The market was still 1.3% below the pre-pandemic level in 2022 and for most of 2023 was well on track to recover to the pre-pandemic level of 2019,” Naamsa said.
However, amid a depressed economy, elevated cost of living increases and power outages, new vehicle sales finally yielded to the pressure with major logistical challenges at the country’s ports towards year-end further undermining the new vehicle market’s ability to full recovery.
The association also warned that the current economic situation paints a somewhat gloomy picture for 2024.
“The country’s weak economic growth rate, although still marginally positive, remains a key challenge for the new vehicle market going forward in view of the close correlation between new vehicle sales and the gross domestic production (GDP) growth rate,” it said.
“With a modest GDP growth rate of 1% projected for 2024, the new vehicle market would likely only improve by single digits of around 5% compared to the level of 2023.”
Out of the country’s 10 best-selling brands, the top three remained unchanged in December with Toyota ranking above Volkswagen and Suzuki with sales of 11 200 versus 5 274 and 3 355 respectively.
Swapping places with Ford to finish fourth, Hyundai ended December with 2 569 compared to the Blue Oval’s 2 489.
Alliance partners Nissan and Renault took sixth and seventh places with sales of 1 900 and 1 864, while Haval jumped a single notch from ninth in November to eighth with a total of 1 480 units sold.
Dropping two places to ninth, Isuzu capped the year and 2023 off with sales of 1 434 ahead of Kia who posted figures of 1 415.
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