Suzuki has surged in popularity over the last few years, becoming the second-best-selling car brand in South Africa.
The Japanese carmaker now sells more cars than other local favourites like VW, Ford, and Isuzu, only losing out to Toyota on the monthly sales charts.
Suzuki’s dramatic rise to prominence in South Africa has primarily been driven by shifting consumer needs, as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis forces many households to shift down-market in search of affordable transport.
While Suzuki has been in operation for over a decade, its sales have shot up since the turn of the decade.
In 2014, the carmaker sold a total of 6,402 vehicles. Now, it regularly sells more than 6,000 units per month.
Interestingly, Suzuki’s popularity with consumers has not wavered as economic conditions have slowly improved in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic.
While households have experienced relief measures like interest rate cuts, lower inflation, and reasonably strong growth in real income, Suzuki has maintained its position as the country’s second-best-selling carmaker.
One explanation for this is that, while economic pressures are gradually being lifted, the average price of new cars has skyrocketed over the past few years.
Roughly 73% of all cars on sale in South Africa now cost more than R500,000, while most formal sector employees still earn less than R30,000 per month.
Even manufactures with local production facilities, such as Ford, Toyota, and VW, have gradually shifted upmarket to the point that most of their vehicles can no longer be realistically described as ‘affordable’ for a typical household.
This, in turn, has created an opportunity for new brands to swoop in and cater to the sub-R500,000 market, one of which is Suzuki.
Suzuki has more affordable cars than any other brand in South Africa, and budget-friendly options like the R220,000 Swift have become a smash hit.
The secret behind this success is that all of the Suzuki models sold in South Africa are assembled in India, which has significantly lower production costs.
While Suzuki is a Japanese brand, nearly all of the cars on our roads were made by Maruti Suzuki over on the sub-continent, allowing the brand to compete in South Africa despite its stagnant economy.
Suzuki’s new competition
Suzuki is currently leading South Africa’s affordable car market, but this segment is starting to be dominated by the flood of new companies from China.
Chery and GWM are the leading examples, as both are now top 10 brands in South Africa, but other makes like Omoda, Jetour, GAC, and MG, are now competing for the same customers.
Much like India, Chinese carmakers are able to leverage the manufacturing power of their home country to compete on a global scale, often undercutting legacy models from Japanese, Korean, and Western brands.
Chery re-entered South Africa in 2022 and sold 8,013 that year. By 2024, that number had already jumped to over 20,000.
In a similar vein, GWM has already sold more cars in 2025 than it did last year, despite still having three months to go.
Chinese makes like Chery are proving to be particularly popular with younger buyers, breaking a misconception that these cars are meant for older individuals.
Standard Bank recently announced that Chery had broken into its top 10 most-financed vehicles list for young buyers, who otherwise prefer to purchase second-hand models.
The youth is an especially important demographic for carmakers, as most consumers tend to stick with one or two brands trusted brands over their lifetime.
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