Toyota Hilux sales soar in September despite Covid-19 crunch

While the local new car market is still recovering from the economy crunch, Toyota has already managed to reach pre-Covid-19 numbers in Hilux sales.

The total number of new vehicles sold in South Africa in September according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) was 37 403, which is 11 737 (23.9%) units down from September last year.

Toyota, however, sold 4 252 Hiluxes in September, which is a staggering 19.8% more than September 2019. The Hilux, along with 1 018 Hiace minibuses, helped Toyota sell a total of 5 653 light commercial vehicles (LCV) last month. This indicates a 5.1% increase from September last year, while the overall LCV market declined by 8.9% from 12 months ago.

The Fortuner again topped Toyota’s passenger car sales with 911 units in September. This, along with a further 809 of the outgoing Etios, contributed towards the brand totalling 9 435 new vehicles in September, which gives it a market share of 25.2%.

Volkswagen is next on the list with 14.5 market share in September, with the Polo Vivo (1 621) and Polo (1 299) contributing the bulk of the September total of 5 458.

Ford sold a total of 3 679 units to grab just under 10% of the market share. This was mainly due to the Ranger recovering to 2 188 units and establishing some daylight between Ford and Isuzu after a very close bakkie battle between the two in August. In contrast, Isuzu only sold 938 bakkies in September. The EcoSport (748) followed the Fortuner as South Africa’s most popular SUV.

Nissan (2 623, of which 1 118 were NP200s) and Hyundai (2 612) rounded off the top five manufacturers in September, followed by Suzuki. The fast-growing brand enjoyed an excellent month, setting a new sales record with a total of 1 787 vehicles, beating its previous best of 1 696 units achieved in February 2020. This new record total, which was largely due to the success of the S-Presso (538) and Swift (533), enabled Suzuki to jump to sixth in the overall rankings with a market share of 7.46%. The rest of the top 10 consisted of Renault (1 651), Mercedes-Benz (1 474), Kia (1 436) and Isuzu (1 197).

As far as exports go, the 28 704 total units in September represented a decline of 7 566 vehicles (20.9%) compared to the 36 270 vehicles exported in September 2019.

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