New vehicle sales finish first half of 2025 on a noteworthy high

The Citizen

a day ago

Aside from posting gains throughout the year, the local market has not experienced an downturn in sales for nine consecutive months.
New vehicle extended its record gains in June, with BMW being one of the biggest surprises. Image: Charl Bosch
The upwards momentum in South Africa's new vehicles sales showed no let in June, with the sixth consecutive increase in as many months, and ninth overall since October last year.
3 000 sales exceeded
Repeating the results of May, the Toyota Hilux ended the month as the country's best-selling vehicle once again ahead of its arch rival, the Ford Ranger, but with sales of more than 3 000 units for the first time this year.
Taking second place with an offset 2 318 versus the Hilux's 3 035, the Ranger beat-out the Toyota Corolla Cross and Volkswagen Polo Vivo, whose respective totals of 2 132 and 1 962 placed them third and fourth.
ALSO READ: New vehicle sales extended winning streak for a fifth time in May
Moving up two places from May, the Isuzu D-Max completed a locally manufactured top five with total sales of 1 678, followed by the sixth placed Chery Tiggo 4 Pro as the highest place imported vehicle with a total of 1 538.
Completing an even split between in producing regions, the Hyundai Grand i10 dropped a notch to seventh on 1 484, while the Suzuki Swift recorded the biggest drop of five places from May to settle at eighth with an offset of 1 466.
Rounding the top 10 off in a direct swap from last month, the GWH Haval Jolion placed ninth on 1 116 and the Suzuki Fronx 10th on 1 112 as the only other vehicle to amass four digit figures.
Month in detail
Winning back significant ground in May in coming the closest to the 50 000 mark since March's 49 493, the figures by National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) for June showed an overall increase of 18.7% from last year's 40 621 to 47 294.
After a mostly positive run in May, individual segments for June continued on the same trajectory, with passenger vehicle sales posting a 21.7% gain from 26 763 to 32 570, and light commercial vehicles an uptake of 14.9% to 12 159 from last year's 10 599.
While medium-duty commercial vehicle remained on the same track as the latter segments with an increase of 24.7% from 523 to 652 units, heavy-duty trucks and buses dipped 3.1% from 2 005 to 1 943.
Having lost ground in May, vehicle exports returned to positive territory in June with an uptake of 7.9% from 33 696 to 36 343.
In total, dealer sales made-up 85.9% or 40 621 of the 47 294 vehicles sold, with the rest being split up as follows:
Rental agencies: 8.2%
Corporate Fleets: 3.2%
Government: 2.7%
Naamsa reaction
'For the first half of the year new vehicle sales were now 13.6% ahead of the corresponding period 2024, supported by and large by an influx of affordable imported models,' Naamsa said.
'The upbeat performance in domestic new vehicle sales builds on gains since the fourth quarter of 2024.
'This success was underpinned by a combination of favourable economic fundamentals, including decreasing interest rates following the South African Reserve Bank's 25 basis point cut May, a still-benign inflation backdrop and improved credit access across the market.
In the same report, Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa remarked, 'the first half of 2025 has shown just how resilient and responsive our domestic market truly is. Strong consumer demand, supported by positive economic fundamentals, has helped the automotive sector deliver impressive growth amid global turbulence'.
The association, however, warned that the second half of the year will present a more complex picture, saying, 'while domestic sales are likely to remain robust in the near term due to lagged effects of interest rate cuts and resilient consumer sentiment, consumers continue to drive demand for affordable, and high-specification models'.
Changed top 10 best-selling marques
Out of the top 10 best-selling brands, only the top three remained steady, with Toyota placing first on 11 690, Suzuki second on 5 221 and Volkswagen third on 4 973.
In a reverse from May, Ford swapped places with Hyundai with sales of 3 058 versus 2 905, while GWM remained sixth on 2 288 ahead of its arch rival, Chery, with 2 101.
Keeping its eighth place, Isuzu's 2 087 saw it place ahead of Mahinda's 1 483, with the biggest surprise being BMW's return to the top 10 with sales of 1 349 at the expense of Renault, Kia and Nissan.
June Top 50 Best-Sellers
Toyota Hilux – 3 035 Ford Ranger – 2 318 Toyota Corolla Cross – 2 132 Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 1 962 Isuzu D-Max – 1 678 Chery Tiggo 4 Pro- 1 538 Hyundai Grand i10 – 1 484 Suzuki Swift- 1 466 GWM Haval Jolion – 1 116 Suzuki Fronx – 1 112 Toyota Fortuner – 878 Mahindra Pik Up – 860 Toyota Starlet – 852 Suzuki Ertiga – 840 Toyota Vitz – 794 Nissan Magnite – 774 Volkswagen Polo – 756 Kia Sonet – 742 Toyota Urban Cruiser – 720 Omoda C5 – 693 Toyota Starlet Cross – 657 Toyota Land Cruiser 70-series – 615 Renault Kwid – 597 Toyota HiAce – 596 Volkswagen T-Cross – 588 Mahindra XUV 3X0 – 477 GWM Haval H6 – 456 Renault Kiger – 439 Hyundai Exter – 438 Nissan Navara – 403 Chery Tiggo 7 Pro – 401 Suzuki S-Presso – 379 Toyota Rumion – 375 Jetour Dashing – 373 GWM P-Series – 367 Suzuki Baleno – 360 Volkswagen Amarok – 354 Citroën C3 – 348 BMW X3 – 339 Jetour X70 Plus – 310 Ford Everest – 306 Ford Territory – 286 Hyundai i20 – 278 Volkswagen Tiguan – 273 Suzuki Jimny – 250 BMW 3 Series – 236 Jaecoo J7 – 230 Foton Tunland G7 – 224 Beijing X55 Plus – 215 Volkswagen Polo Sedan – 214
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