News / 2 November 2022 / Albert du Toit

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

In October 2022, 45,966 new vehicles were purchased in South Africa showing a 4,715-unit (11.4%) improvement over the same month last year.

Toyota took the biggest slice of the market at 12,574 vehicles sold of its own, comfortably extending its margin over VW in second place with 4,904 sales.

Automotive exports also jumped by 4,101 units (16.1%) in comparison to October 2021, a total of 29,508 cars being shipped out of South Africa to other countries during last month.

In this category, Mercedes-Benz took home the crown by exporting 8,075 C-Class Sedans from its East London factory.

SA Auto Week key takeouts

Naamsa recently held its inaugural South African Auto Week focused on the automotive sector’s continued sustainability and move to electric vehicles, with many key stakeholders from major manufacturers to delegates of the state taking part.

According to Naamsa, a key takeaway from the event was that South Africa needs to push to make the African Continental Free Trade Area [AfCFTA] a reality as the European market will become significantly more challenging for exports in the near future and AfCFTA aims to accelerate development across the African market and help drive industrialisation of the continent.

Additionally, consumers must embrace the opportunities that hybrid and electric vehicles offer beyond the automotive sector, such as decentralised solar power generation and energy storage solutions.

Finally, “we urgently need to address our structural challenges [energy, infrastructure, labour, transportation] as they continue to threaten our global competitiveness,” said the organisation.

New vehicles sales breakdown

Out of the total reported new vehicle sales in the country in October 2022, an estimated 82.6% represented dealer sales, 13.1% represented sales to the vehicle rental industry, 2.4% represented sales to the government, and 1.9% represented sales to industry corporate fleets.

The passenger car segment experienced a gain of 10.4% over 2021, strongly supported by the car rental industry which accounted for 17.4% of all purchases.

The light commercial vehicle segment that includes bakkies and mini-buses also saw a welcome jump of 14.3% in sales.

Sales for the medium and heavy commercial segments continued the upwards momentum, reflecting a positive performance during the month at a 29.9% increase in sales of medium commercial vehicles and 3.7% in the case of heavy commercial vehicles.

Below are the best-selling car brands in South Africa from October 2022.

Click on the underlined names for more information.