This is the fastest-growing car brand in South Africa

Mahindra is the fastest-growing car brand in South Africa, increasing its monthly sales by 40% over the past year.

This March the Indian carmaker set a new record of 2,253 sales, the first time it has breached the 2,000 mark, besting its previous all-time high of 1,613 registrations by a considerable margin.

It also recorded a new annual best of 15,088 vehicles in the financial year ended March 2025.

On its way to setting these records, Mahindra surpassed every milestone it had for itself.

For instance, it sold the most SUVs in one month in March at 1,000 units, the most bakkies ever in one month at 1,256 units, and delivered the most Scorpio-N SUVs in one month at 145 units.

With these new benchmarks, Mahindra has jumped to the eighth-largest vehicle manufacturer in the country, a mere two months after it entered the top ten.

“A detailed analysis of the naamsa sales figures for the financial year to end-March shows that Mahindra is the fastest-growing vehicle brand among the high-volume (more than 500 units per month) brands,” said Rajesh Gupta, CEO of Mahindra South Africa.

Mahindra has occupied this top spot three times in the past decade, in 2018, 2022, and now in 2025.

“We are more than thrilled about our sales performance over the past 12 months, but especially by the underlying story told by these numbers,” said Gupta.

“The overwhelming majority of sales in the past month and past year were made to individuals and not as bulk sales to fleet buyers. This is a true reflection of the health of the Mahindra brand.”

Big things ahead

Mahindra has big ambitions to continue growing its footprint in South Africa.

In the past year, the group has broken ground on a new, made-for-purpose manufacturing hub at the Dube Tradeport in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

The facility will soon replace the existing factory and offer the automaker a new level of advanced assembly capabilities for its range of Pik Up bakkies.

The facility boasts a production capacity of over 1,000 units a month, whereas the current one does approximately 700 units.

More recently, Mahindra has taken occupation of a new parts distribution warehouse and training facility in Midrand, Gauteng.

This location more than doubles its previous holding capacity of parts and components, and it will soon house the brand’s parts storage, training centre, and special fitment centre under one roof.

Furthermore, Mahindra has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to investigate a fully-fledged manufacturing facility for completely knocked-down vehicles in South Africa.

At the moment, the company produces semi knocked-down Pik Up vehicles on local soil which is when partially assembled kits are imported from another country and fully put together here.

Meanwhile, completely knocked-down vehicles refers to when a car is built from scratch in one factory, and it represents a much bigger investment into a country than the semi knocked-down route.

Mahindra and the IDC have also agreed to investigate the manufacturing of parts for fully built-up electric vehicles in South Africa.

These initiatives signal to South Africa, “our second home outside of India,” that Mahindra is here for the long haul.

“We are here to stay, and we will continue to invest in the country to grow our market share and develop the country in general,” concluded Gupta.