Best-selling car brands in South Africa

The auto industry is off to a strong start in South Africa in 2023, with new vehicle sales totalling 43,509 units – a 4.8% increase over the corresponding month in January 2022, according to Naamsa’s new-vehicle sales report.

The improvement in sales shows an industry in rebound following years of disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues, and this is shown by the fact that 13 different car brands achieved over 1,000 vehicle sales each this past month.

Toyota was once again the preferred brand for local motorists, improving on its December figures by 1,282 units for a grand total of 12,532 models being sold over the last 31 days.

Next up was Volkswagen, which saw a small dip in purchases compared to the previous month but which nonetheless managed to achieve an impressive sales point of over 5,000 units.

Third place, meanwhile, was taken by Suzuki cracking 4,300 sales, cementing its name as one of the country’s favourite passenger-vehicle brands.

Fourth and fifth place, however, saw a role reversal as Nissan overtook Hyundai by a noticeable margin of over 400 units, with both carmakers celebrating more than 2,000 sales in January.

The other five automakers to make it into the top 10 this month included Renault, Kia, Ford, Haval, and Isuzu.

The light and heavy-commercial sectors as a whole also saw a notable increase in sales of 10.4% and 9.9% respectively.

Vehicle exports, on the other hand, reported an overall decline of 1.8%, though this decline was not evenly distributed as segments like passenger vehicles experienced an 8.8% decrease in exports while light-commercial transport such as bakkies reported an 8.1% increase in overseas purchases.