The fastest-growing segment in South Africa’s used car market

Hybrid and electric cars are rapidly gaining popularity with motorists shopping in South Africa’s pre-owned market.

This is according to new data from Lightstone Auto, which analysed the buying habits of consumers over the past five years.

Lightstone found that while internal combustion engine (ICE) car sales have remained relatively stable with a consistent split between petrol and diesel models, new-energy vehicles (NEVs) are starting to eat into the market share of these other options.

NEVs – a term that refers to both hybrid and battery-electric cars – only accounted for 0.5% of all second-hand purchases in 2023.

However, this figure doubled in 2024 and the segment now accounts for more than 1% of all used car finance deals in the country.

Admittedly, these figures are very low right now, but this is mostly due to the fact that NEVs are still a fairly recent addition to South Africa’s new-car market as well.

Once a trend starts to emerge in the new-car segment, it often a while for that same trend to emerge in the pre-owned market once the first wave of purchases are passed on to new owners.

Case in point is the fact that NEVs were the fastest-growing segment in the new-car market in 2024 with a 100% year-on-year increase from 2023.

Last year, the auto industry sold a total of 15,611 NEVs across 21 different brands, marking a significant improvement from the 7,746 units sold the year prior.

To put this in perspective, only 324 units were sold in 2020, which means NEVs have experienced exponential growth since the start of the decade.

What changed

The growing adoption rate of NEVs can largely be attributed to a single factor – price.

As is the case with most new technologies, access has largely been gatekept behind high prices putting these cars out of reach for most households.

The first hybrid and electric cars to debut in South Africa mostly came from luxury brands like BMW and Lexus, so it’s understandable that mass adoption didn’t occur overnight when price tags stretched into the millions.

However, NEVs have effectively been democratized over the past five years thanks to the introduction of several new models that are (relatively) affordable compared to what came before.

The two most popular hybrids in the country are the Toyota Corolla Cross and Haval Jolion, which retail for R494,400 and R519,950, respectively.

More recently, Chery introduced the Tiggo Cross CSH, which is officially the cheapest hybrid in South Africa with its sticker of R439,900.

It’s a similar story with the more advanced plug-in hybrids, where the “entry-level” model previously asked for R1,050,000.

Brands like BYD and Chery have since launched the Sealion 6 and Tiggo 7 CSH, which have lowered the price floor to around R600,000.

As for electric cars, its now possible to pick one up for as little as R399,900 if you go for the Dayun S5.

All of this is to say that NEVs are a lot more accessible than they were just a few years ago, which has naturally resulted in a significant sales boost.

This, in turn, is starting to reflect in South Africa’s used car market, as affordable second-hand hybrids are easier to come by for motorists who are curious to try out the new technology.