Stellantis South Africa posted its highest sales tally of the year in October 2023, more than doubling its September effort. What’s behind this sales boost? Well, we decided to take a closer look at the numbers in a bid to find out.
As a reminder, Stellantis distributes the Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Opel and Peugeot brands in Mzansi. The multinational firm plans to start local production of the Landtrek in Coega (near Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape) by “early 2026”.
In September 2023, the group managed a total of 353 units across its six marques, seeing it place 18th overall. However, that figure grew to 778 units in October (up 120.4%, month on month), representing the company’s strongest month of the year (ahead of June’s total of 596 units) and helping it climb to 14th overall.
As many as 437 of those units were sold in the vehicle-rental space, translating to a considerable 56.2% of Stellantis SA’s registrations last month. Just 278 units were sold through the dealer channel, with the remaining 63 units listed as single registrations (defined as vehicles registered by manufacturers for their own use).
So, which Stellantis products drove this growth in the vehicle-rental space, which Naamsa says accounted for 12.9% of the industry total of 45 445 units in October? Well, the Opel Corsa was the group’s best-selling model overall, with as many as 200 of its 218 units coming via the rental channel.
Meanwhile, the Indian-built Citroën C3 (internally known as the CC21) finished the month on 194 units, of which 150 were sold to vehicle-rental companies. A further 50 examples of the Opel Mokka (out of a total of 116 units) were sold via this channel, along with 35 units of the Peugeot Landtrek bakkie (out of a total of 63). Finally, two of the five examples of the Alfa Romeo Tonale registered in October went to rental firms.
Overall, German brand Opel was Stellantis SA’s strongest marque last month, followed by the French duo of Citroën and Peugeot, then Italian automaker Fiat, American brand Jeep and Italian company Alfa Romeo.
While the rental industry clearly drove Stellantis SA’s best month of 2023 so far, it’s worth noting the company achieved some growth in the dealer channel, too. In this space, registrations improved from 166 units in September to 278 units in October.
This article was originally published on Cars.co.za...
Cars.co.za is a leading online automotive retail portal that lists more than 70 000 vehicles stocked by hundreds of dealers countrywide, as well as the top-ranked branded SA YouTube channel. In 2015, Cars.co.za repositioned itself as a consumer champion by optimising its editorial content for the purposes of engaging and empowering its users. The Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey, in association with Lightstone Consumer, and the Cars.co.za Consumer Awards – powered by WesBank, underlines the company’s objective to be the most comprehensive resource to South African vehicle buyers.
Go to: http://www.cars.co.za
