BMW’s electric vehicles (EV) are the firm favourites for South African early adopters, with the German marque’s battery-powered rides seizing a 51% share in the new and a 50% share in the used market for the first half of 2023.
Following BMW; Volvo, Mini, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, and Porsche were the next-best performers, according to data from AutoTrader.
Premium brands on top
Premium manufacturers came out on top in EV sales in the first half of 2023, with a total of 501 brand-new and 131 used units sold. This reflects a massive uptick in interest from local buyers as these numbers already match the entire 2022’s EV sales.
“Affordability, limited choice, and education have been major factors stalling the sales of pure electric vehicles in South Africa. Now, however, around 20 EVs retail on the new car market,” said AutoTrader CEO George Mienie.
“That feeds down to the used car market providing those buyers with a wider selection as well. AutoTrader has also been at the forefront of the transition, with the EV buyer survey and education.”
Market share for the high-end brands during the first six months of the year looked as follows:
| Brand | New market share | Used market share |
|---|---|---|
| BMW | 51% | 50% |
| Volvo | 20% | 14% |
| Mini | 12% | 14.5% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 8% | 1.5% |
| Audi | 3% | 10% |
| Jaguar | 1.8% | 6% |
| Porsche | 1.4% | 1.5% |
| Other | 2.8% | 2.5% |
This commanding success from BMW is attributed to the fact that it offers the widest range of EV options among its peers, and was one of the first brands to introduce EVs locally with the quirky BMW i3 launched in 2015.
The i3 is also the best-selling used EV on AutoTrader and retails at an average of R600,950, making it one of the more attainable battery-electric cars available.
Tides are a-changing
Top-end automakers may be the current front-runners in EV sales, but that’s likely to change in the not-too-distant future as more affordable EVs from Chinese brands GWM and JAC are heading to our roads.
Soon, GWM’s new Ora hatchback is set to land on local shores and it will likely snatch the accolade of the country’s most affordable EV from the Mini Cooper SE as its preliminary pricing is set at R716,900, while the Mini goes for R783,500.
Perhaps more notable, JAC recently confirmed that it will introduce its new T9 to the country before the end of 2023, with plug-in hybrid and fully-electric variants to follow in 2024, by which point it is expected to become the first automaker to sell electrified bakkies in South Africa.
JAC offers some of the most affordable double cabs currently on the market, with two models to choose from priced from a low of R354,900 up to a maximum of R499,900, and it’s anticipated that its incoming T9 will stay true to this aggressive pricing strategy.
Kia, too, said it wants to sell its battery-powered autos in South Africa, but the company told TopAuto in June that it will only do so once it can ensure “pricing is reasonable and relative to the value proposition offered.”
While Kia has moved from the budget brand it once was up to a midfield competitor, its EVs are set to be competitively priced and still more affordable than those from the Europeans.
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