Hugely impacted by the April floods in KwaZulu-Natal, the Toyota Hilux has re-taken its position in August as South Africa's best-selling new vehicle.
It’s Prospecton Plant in Durban now back to full operation after April’s damaging floods, Toyota, while still the country’s top-selling brand in August, returned to the number one position with Hilux instead of the imported Urban Cruiser.
Aside from being back-in-business 100%, South Africa’s most loved marque recorded overall sales of 10 797, with 3 417 being attributed to the Hilux, the first time since the onset of the floods that the top-selling vehicle had shifted more than 3 000 units.
Perineal second place finisher, Volkswagen, retained its “runner-up” spot on the podium with sales of 6 630, followed by Suzuki (4 164), Hyundai (3 129) and Nissan (2 644). Completing the top-ten for the month were Renault (2 350), Ford (2 341), Isuzu (2 122), Kia (2 035) and Haval (1 797).
On the model front, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo placed second with sales of 2 359, ahead of the Urban Cruiser (1 905), Ford Ranger (1 791) and Isuzu D-Max (1 789).
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In a predominantly local flavoured top-ten, bar the Indian-sourced Urban Cruiser and Suzuki Swift that came seventh with sales of 1 369, the Nissan NP200 placed sixth behind the D-Max with sales of 1 397, with eighth, ninth and tenth being occupied by the Volkswagen Polo (1 286), Toyota Corolla Cross (1 129) and Toyota HiAce (1 046).
In addition to the individual figures, overall vehicle sales showed no let-up in August with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) posting an eighth straight month increase with sales of 47 420, a 14.2% uptake from the 41 553 vehicles moved twelve months ago.
With the exception of medium-duty commercials dropping a scant 0.4% from 718 to 715, all of the other segments ended the month in the black, with heavy-duty commercials posting the biggest gain of 20.2% from 1 793 to 2 155.
Placing second was light commercial vehicles with 13 281, an improvement of 13.1% from 2021’s 11 745, while passenger vehicles rounded the month off with an uptake of 11.2% from 27 277 to 31 269.
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After posting a record 33% year-on-year increase in July, new vehicle exports emerged as the biggest winner in August with an increase of 57% from last year’s 18 260 to this year’s 28 662.
“The new vehicle market remained resilient despite increasingly tough economic conditions via elevated inflation and the upward trend in interest rates which are eroding households’ spending power and present an affordability challenge to consumers,” NAAMSA said.
“According to the ABSA Purchasing Managers’ Index, domestic demand is also likely continuing to benefit from the reopening effect (of Covid-19 restrictions) while an easing in the intensity of loadshedding meant that conditions in the manufacturing sector improved in August 2022”.
The association, however, warned that, “the pace of steady growth being experienced in the market is expected to slow down for the balance of the year” in spite of 2022 year-on-year sales being 13.8% up on that of 2021.
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