Best-selling car brands in South Africa

New-vehicle sales in South Africa totaled 46,810 units this past June, an increase of 5,758 units (14%) over the same month in 2022.

During this period, Toyota was the best-selling brand by a massive margin of over 230% as the Japanese automaker moved a total of 13,016 cars during the month, with VW in second place selling a noticeably lower 5,578.

Suzuki remained steadfast in third place thanks to a performance of 4,335 sales, while Hyundai came in fourth at 2,645 putting it neck-and-neck with Ford’s 2,514 sales that scored the blue oval the fifth spot.

The gap between sixth and seventh is even slimmer, the former going to Nissan by virtue of 2,380 transactions while the latter is taken by Isuzu with 2,365.

Renault, Haval, and Kia then complete the top 10, these brands seeing 1,836, 1,749, and 1,507 sales, respectively.

Bakkies and mini-buses were big performers in general as the light-commercial-vehicle segment improved its sales by over 57% year-on-year through registering 13,945 units, thus occupying a market share of approximately 30%.

The medium-commercial-vehicle category accounted for 1.5% of the entire market and the heavy-commercial-vehicle segment for 5%, while the remainder of the sales were attributed to passenger cars.

Of the aggregate new-vehicle purchases during June, 83.5% were attributed to dealerships, 10% to the vehicle rental industry, 3.5% to the government, and 3% to industry corporate fleets.

“The unexpected extent of the upswing in the new-vehicle market during June 2023, for the second month in a row, exceeded expectations despite ongoing increases in the total cost of ownership,” said Naamsa.

The association accredits the performance to easing inflation, an improvement in daytime load-shedding, and a “renewed collaboration between business and government to urgently tackle key current challenges relating to energy, infrastructure, and transport logistics, as well as combating crime.”

“If successful, the collaboration efforts could assist to reduce policy uncertainty and promote a more predictable economic environment which would enable much higher levels of investment, growth, and job creation and to break out of the current low economic growth trap.”

However, it notes that several challenges still threaten the industry such as high interest rates, high inflation, and currency depreciation which put strain on consumer wallets, leading to affordability being the main driver behind purchase decisions.