News / 4 October 2022 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

Toyota is once again the best-selling brand in South Africa, selling over 12,000 vehicles in September, according to Naamsa’s new-vehicle sales report.

This is almost twice as much as the runner-up VW, which sold a still-impressive 6,750 units last month.

South Africa’s favourite car brands

New vehicle sales reached 47,786 units in September 2022, an improvement of roughly 6,000 units over the same month last year, indicating a strong recovery for South Africa’s automotive sector in the years following the initial Covid-19 shutdown.

It’s also a very slight improvement over the 47,420 models sold in August this year, suggesting that car sales have remained steady even in the face of economic uncertainty with stage six load shedding and fuel concerns, said Naamsa.

Of the over 47,000 vehicle sales, roughly 81.9% came from dealerships, equating to 39,152 units making their way off the showroom floor and into the hands of new owners.

Another 14.2% of sales are attributed to the rental industry, and the government and industry corporate fleets accounted for 2.3% and 1.6%, respectively.

Passenger car purchases also came out at 32,392 units – an increase of 2,855 units, or nearly 10%, compared to September 2021, and it is estimated that the rental industry accounted for 18.9% of all passenger vehicle transactions.

Light commercial vehicles such as bakkies and mini-buses also saw growth this past month, increasing by 1,632 units, or 14.9%, over the same period last year, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles saw their own improvements of 15.3% and 3.6%, respectively.

Another massive improvement for South Africa is in its vehicle exports, which have jumped a staggering amount from 20,275 units in September 2021 to 41,474 units last month, which equates to an increase of 104%.

Detailed below are the best-selling car brands in South Africa, according to Naamsa.

Click on the underlined names for more information.