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2020: A dismal year for new vehicle sales

2020: A dismal year for new vehicle sales

During 2020, a total of 7,614 vehicles were sold locally, a 26.8% contraction from 2019, representing the lowest annual vehicle sales figure since 2004, according to statistics by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa.

Of the 7,614 new vehicles sold during the year, 3,212 were passenger vehicles, 3,869 were light commercial vehicles, and 533 were medium and heavy commercial vehicles.

Toyota lead the market for new passenger vehicle sales in 2020, claiming 28.6% of the market, followed by Volkswagen with a 25.5% share. They were followed by Kia and Hyundai at 6.8% and 5.8%, respectively. The only other manufacturer that managed to breach the 5% market share mark was Mercedes-Benz with 5.3% of the market, leaving the remaining 27.9% of the market to other brands.

Toyota also remained the leader in the light commercial vehicle space in 2020 with 56% market share, with Nissan in second place with a 12.9% market share. Ford and Isuzu claimed 12.3% and 6.7% respectively of the number of new light commercial vehicles sold for the year. Mercedes lead the medium commercial category with 32% of sales while Volvo Trucks was number one in the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle segment with 21.6% of the market share during the year.

IJG analysts noted that the introduction of the longer-dated 72-month vehicle loans has had a small positive impact on new passenger vehicle sales, but not enough to offset the damage done by lockdowns.

“With there being few signs that 2021 will see significant economic growth, we expect new vehicle sales to remain under pressure,” IJG said.


 Year-to-date sales shows how severely the new vehicle industry was impacted by the lockdown in April 2020. (Graph: IJG Research)

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys