While new vehicle sales in August showed a decline of 2.5% year-on-year, the performance of the industry has remained relatively flat from a year-to-date perspective at -0.6% over the first eight months of 2018.
Of the 47,964 total industry sales last month, 66% went to the passenger vehicle segment which is down 2.2% year-on-year and is flat year-to-date according to data released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa).
| Top-10 best-selling passenger vehicles |
| VW Polo | 2993 |
| VW Polo Vivo | 1900 |
| KIA Picanto | 1071 |
| Hyundai Grand i10 | 1020 |
| Toyota Etios | 900 |
| Toyota Fortuner | 888 |
| Toyota Yaris | 884 |
| Toyota Corolla Quest | 845 |
| Renault Kwid | 767 |
| Ford Figo | 732 |
Light commercials, which contributed 29% of total sales, are down 5.8% year-on-year and 2.5% year-to-date. The commercial segment comprising buses, medium, heavy and extra-heavy vehicles made up the final 5%, and is up 16% year-on-year and 2.1% year-to-date.
“Despite perpetual pressure on the economy this year with total industry sales remaining subdued, the dealer channel has been resilient showing 2.4% year-to-date growth.” said Ghana Msibi, WesBank’s executive head for sales and marketing.
| Top-10 best-selling light commercial vehicles |
| Toyota Hilux | 3366 |
| Ford Ranger | 2535 |
| Nissan NP200 | 1634 |
| Isuzu KB | 1542 |
| Toyota Quantum | 1477 |
| Nissan NP300 | 905 |
| Hyundai H100 Bakkie | 337 |
| Mahindra Scorpio Pik-UP | 233 |
| VW Caddy | 190 |
| Nissan Hardbody | 187 |
“With four months remaining in 2018, WesBank’s forecast of 3% growth is still possible. However, if the deterioration of the rand to foreign currencies continues as we’ve seen in August, consumers could feel more of a pinch when buying new cars going forward.”
Rentals grew by 1.6% year-on-year in August, but remained 7.6% down when compared to the first eight months of last year which saw the highest rental sales ever recorded.
