Johannesburg - April is usually a slow sales month due to public holidays, but the mood was particularly sombre last month.
April 2023 saw a 0.2% year-on-year decline for the new vehicle industry as a whole despite there being an extra selling day on this year’s calendar. It was a particularly slow month for the passenger car market, which declined by 6.1% year-on-year to total 24 174 units, according to the Automotive Business Council (Naamsa).
The bakkie and light commercial vehicle sector, on the other hand, saw an 11% sales increase versus the same month last year, with the Ford Ranger outselling the Toyota Hilux. Click here to see how the bakkies ranked in April.
On the passenger car sales charts, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo led the way overall and among its hatchback peers, with Suzuki’s Swift coming in second (1 216) followed by the Toyota Starlet (1 098), Hyundai Grand i10 (807) and Volkswagen Polo (777).
In the SUV sales race, the Toyota Corolla Cross topped the charts, and emerged second overall among passenger cars, with a volume of 1 281. It was followed by the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro (708), Toyota Fortuner (695) and Haval Jolion (677).
Below is a list of the 30 top-selling cars and SUVs in South Africa during April 2023:
- 1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 1 510
- 2. Toyota Corolla Cross – 1 281
- 3. Suzuki Swift – 1 216
- 4. Toyota Starlet – 1 098
- 5. Hyundai Grand i10 – 807
- 6. Volkswagen Polo – 777
- 7. Chery Tiggo 4 Pro – 708
- 8. Toyota Fortuner – 695
- 9. Haval Jolion – 677
- 10. Renault Kiger – 625
- 11. Suzuki Baleno – 554
- 12. Toyota Agya – 551
- 13. Volkswagen T-Cross – 492
- 14. Kia Sonet – 454
- 15. Nissan Magnite – 430
- 16. Suzuki Ertiga – 412
- 17. Suzuki S-Presso – 391
- 18. Kia Picanto – 368
- 19. Haval H6 – 357
- 20. Toyota Rumion – 345
- 21. Hyundai i20 – 343
- 22. Renault Triber – 338
- 23. Hyundai Venue – 329
- 24. Toyota Corolla Quest – 328
- 25. Toyota Urban Cruiser – 317
- 26. Chery Tiggo 7 Pro – 312
- 27. Volkswagen Tiguan – 278
- 28. Renault Kwid – 273
- 29. Suzuki Jimny – 255
- 30. Volkswagen Polo Sedan – 247
Naamsa said it expected the new vehicle market to remain constrained for the rest of 2023, due to several negative factors.
For starters, the International Monetary Fund predicts that the country’s real gross domestic product growth will decelerate sharply to 0.1% this year, due to load shedding and other related supply shocks.
Furthermore, the high inflation rate is likely to lead to yet another interest rate hike this month, according to Naamsa.
However, despite the highly negative state of the economy, the South African new vehicle market remains 1.3% ahead of where it was this time last year. But whether we’ll see any further growth for the remainder of the year remains to be seen.
WesBank’s marketing head Lebo Gaoaketse believes that there is latent demand for vehicle replacements but buyers are wary to commit due to the economic conditions.
“Applications for new vehicle finance at WesBank increased over 9% year-on-year, yet market sales remained flat during April,” Gaoaketse added.
The chairperson of the National Automobile Dealers’ Association said it was discouraged by the decline in bank approvals during April, which were partly due to recent interest rate hikes hindering affordability.
One silver lining in April was South African export sales, which increased by 13.4% to 37 107 units.
South Africa’s top-selling export last month was the Volkswagen Polo, which saw 8 257 units shipped abroad. It was followed by the Toyota Hilux (6 918), Mercedes C-Class (6 515), BMW X3 (4 400) and Ford Ranger (2 951).