While everyone is focusing on the increasing dominance of Chinese autos in South Africa, Indian conglomerate Mahindra is quietly taking the country by storm.
Mahindra reported impressive growth of 37.4% in new passenger and light commercial vehicle sales in Q4 2024, beating market darlings Chery (23.7% growth) and Suzuki (22% growth) by a considerable amount.
New entrants including Chery sub-brands Omoda and Jaecoo, as well as BAIC, also gained traction, while Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, and BMW recorded year-on-year declines.
This is according to credit agency TransUnion’s latest Vehicle Pricing Index for Q4 2024, which tracks pricing and sales trends in the South African automotive market over specific periods.
Mahindra has been covertly building up followers in the country in recent years owing to its cost-effective offerings and improving quality of its products.
It was the country’s fastest-growing brand in terms of sales in 2022, and its Pik Up has rapidly gained traction in the competitive bakkie scene to the point where it’s regularly among the top five best-selling models in the segment.
Likewise, the newly minted XUV 3X0 has proven to be a smash hit in the fiercely contested crossover category, so much so that it was the 18th best-selling and 19th best-selling car on the market in December 2024 and February 2025, respectively, achieving these accolades mere months after being introduced to the country.
Additionally, the automaker celebrated the 10,000th locally assembled Pik Up bakkie in mid-2022, which took four years to achieve from opening the doors of its Semi Knocked Down assembly facility in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
Less than three years later, in February 2025, it heralded the 25,000th locally assembled Pik Up, illustrating its rapidly growing footprint in South Africa.
Mahindra’s rise to stardom has motivated the company to investigate the feasibility of setting up its own Completely Knocked Down vehicle manufacturing hub within our borders, which would see it join the likes of BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, VW, and, soon, Stellantis.
It recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation to jointly examine key factors such as automotive industry incentives, export market potential, workforce development, and supply chain infrastructure.
Furthermore, the study will assess logistics and supply chain feasibility, including potential locations, to determine how Mahindra can further integrate into the country’s industrial landscape, including new-energy vehicles.
A growing trend
Mahindra and rivals Chery and Suzuki’s stellar performances in Q4 2024 underscores a growing trend in the South African automotive market of consumers buying down in the face of rising car prices.
New vehicle prices, on average, increased 1.7% in the last three months of 2024 due to supply chain constraints and production costs, said TransUnion.
It has now reached the point where almost three quarters of all new cars on sale costs over half a million rand, forcing cash-strapped consumers who may once have aspired to own something like a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz to look elsewhere.
The primary benefactors of this shift has been Chinese nameplates such as Chery and Haval, Japan’s Suzuki, and, of course, India’s Mahindra.
The rise in popularity of these four Asian automakers can be seen below:
| Brand | Sales 2020 | Sales 2021 | Sales 2022 | Sales 2023 | Sales 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chery | N/A | N/A | 8,013 | 16,099 | 19,905 |
| GWM/Haval | 9,252 | 19,062 | 22,629 | 19,837 | 18,745 |
| Mahindra | 6,230 | 7,236 | 12,912 | 11,490 | 12,858 |
| Suzuki | 16,527 | 27,583 | 47,178 | 49,436 | 59,574 |
| Total | 32,009 | 53,881 | 90,732 | 96,862 | 111,082 |
Collectively, the market share of these brands has ballooned from 8.42% in 2020 to an impressive 21.53% in 2024.
Meanwhile, sales for premium badges like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz either stagnated or contracted during this period:
| Brand | Sales 2020 | Sales 2021 | Sales 2022 | Sales 2023 | Sales 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audi | 5,819 | 5,712 | 6,245 | 6,259 | 5,511 |
| BMW | 8,577 | 10,947 | 12,097 | 12,216 | 12,145 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 11,161 | 8,423 | 10,605 | 8,324 | 6,025 |
| Total | 25,557 | 25,082 | 28,947 | 26,799 | 23,681 |
These three German marques occupied a 6.72% slice of the market in 2020, which fell to 4.59% in 2024.
Even industry stalwarts such as Toyota and VW have sounded the alarm on the adverse impact of Chinese and Indian autos on their registrations.
These more mature brands have, among others, called for government intervention to protect their local interests.
Meanwhile, other manufacturers such as Hyundai have gone the route of cutting prices on its existing offerings and launching newer, more affordable vehicles such as the baby Exter crossover in an effort to safeguard their market share.
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