According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), sales increased by 2.6% overall, with the best improvement in the passenger vehicle market (4.3%).
Members of Naamsa sold 38 675 passenger vehicles in July, with Volkswagen again taking the passenger vehicle lead. It sold 7 145 passenger vehicles for a segment market share of over 18%.
The Volkswagen Polo and Polo Vivo remain South Africa’s favourite passenger vehicles. It accounted for 4 787 units in July or 62% of all the cars that Volkswagen sold.
The picture in the light commercial vehicle market looks similar, but there Toyota is the hero. It sold 5 179 light commercials for a segment market share of over 38% of this market. Its top sellers in this segment is the Hilux – South Africa’s favourite vehicle – which sold 3 373 units in July and 1 460 units of the Quantum and Ses’fikile taxi, which share a platform. Combined, these two model ranges represent 37% of all Toyota models sold.
Overall, Toyota (12 480 sales) and Volkswagen (7 691 sales) stand proud of all the other competitors and between them they have seven of the top 10 passenger vehicles and four of the ten best-selling light commercial vehicles in the market.
Viewed differently, Volkswagen sells more VW Polo models in a month than the next most popular brand, Nissan, sells passenger vehicles and bakkies. Toyota in turn sells more cars and bakkies than the third, fourth and fifth most popular brands (Nissan, Ford and Hyundai) combined. Together, these two brands represent 42.8% of the entire vehicle market.
While the two behemoths have a disproportionate influence on the market, there is a lot of action further down the sales roster.
Nissan and Ford keep vying for the third position. Last month, Nissan flew past Ford to end in third place, while this month Ford (4 856 sales) edged past Nissan (4 530 sales). Hyundai holds steady in fifth place with sales of 3 150 sales.
After the top five there are a number of brands that are fighting furiously to maintain their footing in the Top 10, from #6 Mercedes-Benz (1 904) to #10 Suzuki (1 237 sales).
Interestingly, Suzuki snuck past Mazda on the sales ranking and pushed it out of the coveted Top 10. This Japanese car maker has set four new overall sales records on its way to entering Naamsa’s top rankings and there are no signs of slowing down.
Below the magical 1 000-sales a month mark, there are a host of car brands that appear to be struggling against the marketing might of the top brands. Some, like Volvo with 222 sales, have carved a strong niche in the luxury market, others, like Tata (137 sales) seem to be losing their foothold in the market.
Naamsa predicts that the vehicle market in the second half of 2018 will improve over the first. This is a predictable annual trend and is influenced by several factors, including vehicle a traditional increase in vehicle sales to rental companies before start of the holiday season.
