Best-selling car brands in South Africa

Things are looking up for South Africa’s automotive industry, which recorded another month of improved sales with 48,585 units in November 2024.

This is both an 8.1% year-on-year improvement from November 2023 and 643 units more than what was achieved with October’s strong performance.

Toyota is once again leading the sector with 12,108 purchases – 217 more than the previous month.

Not far behind is VW, which managed a healthy 6,321 sales, though this was slightly less than what it saw in October.

Suzuki, meanwhile, was able to match its record-setting numbers with 6,004 units, cementing its title as South Africa’s third-most popular brand.

Ford has managed to retain fourth place thanks to 3,071 customers, while Hyundai came in a close fifth with 2,940 sales.

It was also a good month for Isuzu in sixth which saw 2,061 units leaving dealerships, and Chery broke the 2,000 mark with a new total of 2,006 showroom victories.

Chery’s rival GWM also put in a good performance with 1,847 units, ensuring that the two brands aren’t too far off one another.

The only change to the rankings in November was Kia and Renault, which swapped places with the former moving up to ninth with 1,662 buyers while the latter closed out the top 10 with 1,505 sales.

Around 81.2% of all the cars sold in South Africa in the last 30 days came from dealerships, while another 14.6% went to the rental industry, 2.4% were taken by the government, and corporate fleets accounted for the remaining 1.8%.

Passenger car sales saw a huge jump of 20% from the same month last year to end on 25,101 units, but this same energy did not carry over to light commercial sales, which dropped by 16.3% to 10,287 purchases.

Another unfortunate development concerns exports, which took a big hit with a 28.6% reduction from last year, with only 30,431 examples making their way to foreign shores.

As noted by Naamsa, the first 11 months of 2024 have seen an average decline in exports of 23.9% from 2023, which is very concerning for South Africa’s manufacturers.

The decline in overseas sales is attributed to restrictive monetary policies and wavering economic prospects in many key markets, leading to a reduction in demand.