Features / 5 May 2026 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

South Africa’s automotive industry kept up its strong performance in April 2026 despite an uncertain global backdrop.

A grand total of 47,979 units were sold last month, representing a 13% year-on-year (YoY) increase compared to the 42,467 units sold in April 2025.

This marks the best April performance since 2013, showing that the industry has largely managed to maintain its momentum this year.

That being said, April’s sales are noticeably lower than the 58,060 units sold in March 2026, and Naamsa warned that the industry is now facing headwinds in the form of higher energy prices, looming inflation, and a reversal in the interest rate outlook.

Last month, Toyota took the crown once again with 10,188 sales, almost double that of the runner-up, Suzuki, and its 5,363 units.

This helped the Japanese carmaker to overtake VW, though the latter still delivered a strong performance with 4,814 units.

Hyundai came fourth with 2,857 sales, and Ford closed out the top five with 2,702.

The next four spots were all taken by Chinese brands, as GWM and Chery took their usual spots in sixth and seventh place with 2,485 and 2,462 sales, respectively.

Next is Jetour, which is now sitting in eighth place thanks to 1,804 customers.

A new entry in the top 10 this time around is Omoda & Jaecoo, which claimed the ninth spot with 1,383 sales.

The last brand to crack the top 10 last month was BMW, which sold 1,366 units and pushed Isuzu and Mahindra out of the rankings.

Of the 47,978 vehicles sold in April, 43,716 units (91.1%) came from dealer sales, while another 5.1% went to the rental industry.

Another 2.2% went to corporate fleets, and the remaining 1.6% went to the government.

Passenger car sales clocked in at 34,414 units – an increase of 4,301 (14.3%) YoY.

Light commercial vehicles also saw an improvement, growing by 973 units (9.7%) to reach 10,966.

Unfortunately, the one sector that declined last month was vehicle exports, which dropped 4% from 32,229 to 30,939 units YoY.