Toyota Urban Cruiser takes top spot as July’s new best-seller

The upwards move in South Africa’s new vehicle sales continued unabated in July with a seventh straight increase in a year that has so far failed deliver an overall downturn.

Despite facing ongoing challenges at its plant in Durban after April’s devastating floods, which halted production of the Corolla Quest, Corolla Cross, Hilux, Fortuner and HiAce, Toyota retook its position as manufacturer of the country’s best-selling vehicle, albeit this time with the Indian-sourced Urban Cruiser that amassed sales of 1 854 units.

With its Silverton Plant outside Pretoria in the final stages of preparing for assembly of the all-new Ranger, Ford placed second with 1 838 units of the outgoing model, followed by the Volkswagen Polo Vivo (1 820), Isuzu D-Max (1 602) and last month’s top-seller, the Suzuki Swift (1 521).

Placing sixth was the Toyota Starlet (1 264) with seventh falling to the Nissan NP200 (1 213), eighth to the Volkswagen Polo (1 166) and ninth to the Renault Kiger (1 099).

In spite of the Toyota Hilux placing tenth with sales of 1 012, again as a result of flood delays, the Japanese automaker stated that assembly of it and the Fortuner resumed on the 21^st of last month, while those of the Corolla Quest and Corolla Cross will head back to full capacity in September.

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“We have lost close to 80 000 units in production due to the floods that forced us to cease manufacturing at the plant. However, we are still committed to our 2022 sales target of 131 000,” Toyota Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Leon Theron, said in a statement.

In the face of not only the floods, but also skyrocketing fuel prices and living costs, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA)’s figures for July of 43 593 reflected not only an increase of 30.9% from the 33 312 vehicles moved last year, but also the 41 019 units sold in June.

Besides light commercial vehicle sales shedding 6.9% from 10 257 to 9 547 units, the three remaining segments ended July in the black with new passenger vehicles recording a whopping uptake of 50.2% from 20 938 to 31 455.

Not as big, but still up on June’s figures were medium-and-heavy-duty commercial vehicles with the former increasing 33.0% from 594 to 790 units and the latter 18.3% from 1 523 to 1 801.

Out of the country’s top sellers, Toyota regained its position at the top of the charts with sales of 7 110 units, followed by Volkswagen on 6 204 and last month’s best performer Suzuki, whose 4 734 represented another record to go with June’s 4 622.

Taking fourth was Hyundai on 2 965 with Nissan placing fifth (2 625), Renault sixth (2 552), Ford seventh (2 473), Kia eighth (2 087), Isuzu ninth (1 951) and BMW tenth (1 512).

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