BusinessTech
Data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) shows that South Africa’s new-vehicle market continues to be on an upward trajectory – with 2022 sales running 13.6% ahead of the corresponding period in 2021.
Over the course of the year – from January to November 2022 – the car industry has sold almost half a mission new vehicles, selling a total of 487,699 units in 2022 with one month left in the year. The month with the most sales was March, with a total of 50,607 units sold.
Regarding the most popular brand, Toyota reigns as the leading manufacturer of local car sales in 2022 by some margin, with 120,805 vehicles sold by the end of November. This represents 24.7% of the total number of new vehicles sold in South Africa this year.
Volkswagen Group is second with 64,470 vehicles sold locally, and Suzuki Auto ranks third with 44,120 units sold – representing 13.2% and 9% of the total number of new vehicles sold in South Africa this year, respectively.
The graph below shows the top five most popular car brands by sales in South Africa in 2022.
Toyota’s success is partly due to the popularity of its flagship Hilux bakkie, which sold a whopping 29,647 of the brand’s total units.
Unsurprisingly, Toyota holds four positions on this list of the best-selling cars in 2022, with the Toyota Hilux firmly in the first position, followed by the Toyota Urban Cruiser in third, the Toyota Corolla Cross in eighth, and the Toyota Starlet in the tenth position.
Expectations for new-vehicle sales in 2023
Despite the positive numbers for car manufacturers in 2022, the new vehicle market’s resilient performance is decelerating due to the seventh consecutive increase in interest rates since November 2021.
Naamsa and vehicle retailer Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) expect this to pressure vehicle sales.
“Growth prospects for the year’s balance remain constrained as higher interest rates and consequent higher debt servicing costs weigh on disposable income. As a consequence, single-digit growth in new vehicle sales could be expected for 2023,” said Naamsa.
Compounding the economic constraints on prospective buyers is the fact that prices for new vehicles are also expected to rise.
New data from TansUnion’s Vehicle Pricing Index (VPI) shows that prices of new cars have accelerated year-on-year to 6.8% in Q3 2022 from 3.8% in Q3 2021 – with economists pointing to the significant depreciation of the rand over the course of 2022 as the culprit for the sharp increase in new vehicle prices.
CMH went even further to say that it expects new vehicle prices to increase by up to 10% within the next four months.
Nevertheless, the new vehicle market continued to outperform expectations, and with only one month to the end of the year, it was running 13.6% ahead of the corresponding period in 2021.
With several new model introductions over the past month and before the end of the year, growth prospects for domestic vehicle exports remain optimistic over the medium term, Naamsa said.
The top 10 best-selling vehicles in South Africa in 2022 are listed below.
1. Toyota Hilux 
2. VW Polo Vivo
3. Toyota Urban Cruiser
4. Isuzu D-max
5. Ford Ranger
6. Suzuki Swift
7. VW Polo
8. Toyota Corolla Cross
9. Nissan NP200
10. Toyota Starlet 
Read: Criminals are using these new high-tech methods to steal cars in South Africa
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