The new vehicle market in South Africa continued its resilient performance in November, rising by 18.2% and registering its eleventh consecutive month of year-on-year growth.
This was despite a myriad of negative economic pressures, including rising interest rates, a drastic increase in load shedding, high fuel prices, a weak economy and ongoing stock supply shortages.
The Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) yesterday said the aggregate domestic new vehicle sales grew by 7 618 units to 49 413 units in November compared to 41 795 vehicles sold in the same month last year.
Naamsa said export sales recorded an increase of 13 479 units, or 64.7%, to 34 310 units in November compared to the 20 831 vehicles exported in November 2021.
Vehicle exports performed strongly compared to the corresponding month 2022 which was affected by the impact of a severe Covid-19 fourth wave in parts of Europe, the industry’s top export region.
Naamsa also noted that the risks to export sales were on the downside, given persistently high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes in many advanced and developing countries at present.
However, linked to the new model introductions, growth prospects for domestic vehicle exports remain optimistic over the medium term.
For the year-to-date, vehicle exports were now 17.9% ahead of the corresponding period 2021, and at 326 516 units already surpassed the 300 000 level for the year.
“The recovery in business and leisure travel provided some support to the new vehicle market to counter the growing pressures on household incomes,” Naamsa said.
“GDP growth in South Africa continues to be adjusted downwards and is now expected to be at 1.1% for 2023.
“In view of the close correlation between new vehicle sales and the country’s GDP growth rate, single digit growth in new vehicle sales could be expected for 2023.”
Toyota is still recovering from lost production due to the four-month stoppage at its plant in Durban caused by flooding in April.
The local manufacturer is obviously catching up on deliveries that should have been made earlier in the year, which is affecting the market positively.
The National Automobile Dealers’ Association (Nada) chairperson Mark Dommisse said the relatively strong sales of new motor vehicles came as a pleasant surprise to the local motor industry and dealer networks.
“We were expecting a similar market to October, considering the negatives affecting the economy and growing political uncertainty in the country, but consumers have once again proved us wrong,” Dommisse said.
“Toyota is still recovering from lost production due to the four-month stoppage at its plant in Durban caused by flooding in April and the local manufacturer is obviously catching up on deliveries that should have been made earlier in the year, which is affecting the market positively.”
In spite of this, Toyota South Africa Motors posted another chart-topping retail result, leading sales in both passenger and light commercial vehicle segments in November with an aggregate of 13 903 units sold, out of the industry total of 49 413, a remarkable market share of 28.1%.
Toyota’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Leon Theron, said this was the second-highest total since coming out of the Covid-19 lockdown for Toyota.
“The incredible loyalty shown by our customers over more than half a century has enabled us to achieve an outstanding share of the local market,” Theron said.
WesBank head of marketing Lebogang Gaoaketse said new vehicle sales during November were certainly unaffected as the market recovered from logistics upsets from the previous month.
In fact, November sales were the second-best selling month this year by a small margin to March sales.
“November sales put in a fighting closing period for 2022, displaying the relatively constant recovery of the market throughout the course of the year,” Gaoaketse said.
“The strong performance of November sales has pushed the year-to-date performance back up to 13.6%.”
BUSINESS REPORT