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Thursday / 6 February 2025
HomeFeaturesThe fastest-growing Chinese car brand in South Africa

The fastest-growing Chinese car brand in South Africa

Jetour is rapidly gaining ground in South Africa, selling well over a thousand cars in its short time on the market.

The Chinese automaker has only been around for a little over three months but is already outperforming 11 different automakers that have maintained a presence here for decades.

One to keep an eye on

Jetour officially debuted at the end of September 2024 with its first cars – the Dashing and X70 Plus SUVs – appearing in showrooms in October.

While it is technically one of the many sub-brands under the Chery umbrella back in China, the manufacturer elected to launch in South Africa independently, making Chery one of its main competitors in the process.

As of right now, Jetour has enjoyed three full months’ worth of sales here, and the company has evidently made an impression on many consumers during this period.

TopAuto recently contacted Jetour to ask if it could share its monthly sales figures, as it currently does not report to Naamsa, the industry body that collects and publishes the performance numbers for most automakers.

A representative responded, stating that the company could not provide these results until it started reporting to Naamsa.

However, the spokesperson was able to confirm that the carmaker had managed to sell over 1,500 units within the last three months.

This means Jetour has been able to sell roughly 500 cars per month since its first appearance – an impressive achievement given it’s still an unfamiliar badge to most of the population.

To put things in perspective, these were the passenger and light commercial vehicle sales for every major auto brand in South Africa in December 2024 according to Naamsa.

The names listed in red are Chinese automakers – Jetour’s biggest rivals.

  1. Toyota – 11,004 units
  2. VW – 4,785 units
  3. Suzuki – 4,514 units
  4. Hyundai – 2,809 units
  5. Ford – 2,520 units
  6. Chery – 1,867 units
  7. GWM – 1,686 units
  8. Kia – 1,496 units
  9. Isuzu – 1,120 units
  10. Renault – 1,105 units
  11. Mahindra – 1,054 units
  12. BMW – 990 units
  13. Nissan – 807 units
  14. Omoda & Jaecoo – 665 units
  15. Stellantis – 554 units
  16. Mercedes-Benz – 488 units
  17. Jaguar Land Rover – 344 units
  18. Honda – 226 units
  19. Mazda – 218 units
  20. Mitsubishi – 181 units
  21. BAIC – 159 units
  22. Porsche – 104 units
  23. JAC – 98 units
  24. Volvo – 64 units
  25. Proton – 36 units
  26. Subaru – 32 units

The rough estimate of 500 cars per month would make Jetour the 16th best-selling manufacturer in the nation, putting it ahead of established names like Honda and Mazda.

In fairness, Mercedes, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo are luxury brands that do not compete on volume, but Jetour was able to beat its Chinese competitors BAIC and JAC by a wide margin.

More importantly, it means Jetour is right behind Omoda and Jaecoo (O&J), which are its primary targets.

At the launch event held back in September, the automaker boldly claimed that it intended to become a top three best-selling Chinese badge in South Africa by the end of 2024, which meant beating O&J.

While it appears Jetour fell short of this goal, it came surprisingly close considering it had only given itself a few months to soar to such heights – whereas Omoda has been around for over a year and a half.

If it continues this trajectory, it’s possible that Jetour will reach this target very soon, after which the new milestone will be to land one of its cars in the top 10 best-sellers list by the end of 2025.

For context, these were the 10 most popular vehicles in December:

  1. Toyota Hilux – 2,926 units
  2. VW Polo Vivo – 1,946 units
  3. Ford Ranger – 1,924 units
  4. Toyota Corolla Cross – 1,526 units
  5. Suzuki Swift – 1,376 units
  6. Toyota Fortuner – 1,343 units
  7. Hyundai Grand i10 – 1,301 units
  8. Toyota Starlet – 1,259 units
  9. Isuzu D-Max – 1,086 units
  10. Haval Jolion – 1,074 units

Jetour clearly has its work cut out for it if it hopes to enter this exclusive club by the end of the year, as these individual cars are selling more than Jetour’s combined stable right now.

To level the playing field, the carmaker plans to launch a new flagship model for the Dashing and X70 Plus this year, as well as a new SUV called the T2 which will cater to South Africa’s off-road enthusiasts.

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