Naamsa – February sales were slow going

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) today reported that new vehicle sales during the month of February had slowed significantly following the strong growth that kicked off 2013 in January.

The statistics, released by independent data provider Messrs RGT Smart, show that aggregate new vehicle sales for the month of February registered an improvement of 832 (1,6 per cent) units to 53 220 from the 52 388 sold during the same month last year.  Exports however, again registered favourable growth – with an improvement of 5 057 from 22 554 to the 27 611 units exported during the same period.

While Mercedes-Benz continues to provide a single sales figure for all the segments represented in the Naamsa statistics, RGT Smart has released estimates for Mercedes-Benz’s performance in passenger car commercial vehicle and export sales data.

Once again, Volkswagen’s Polo Vivo topped the local passenger vehicle sales charts with a total of 2 742 units sold in February, while second place belongs to Toyota’s Etios, with 2 204 vehicles sold. Volkswagen’s Polo is a close third with 2 192 units moved while the BMW 3 Series is far off in fourth with 1 075 vehicles sold.

Toyota’s Hilux remains the number one seller in South Africa and as such is situated right at the top of light commercial vehicle sales with 3 500 units sold during February. Ford sold 1 784 Rangers, while the Chevrolet Utility managed 1 483 sales.

Of the total detailed industry sales of 51 046 vehicles (which doesn’t include Mercedes-Benz), 85,6 per cent represented dealer sales, 6,6 per cent represented rental industry sales, 4,0 per cent represented corporate fleet sales and 3,8 per cent represented sales to government.

The association believes that the short-term prospects for the industry remain positive, with sales supported by the low interest rate, vehicle replacement demand, a highly competitive trading environment, low debt servicing costs and high technology new model introductions and increased demand from the rental industry. Factors that could limit growth include rising inflation, the anticipated increase in CO₂ tax and weakened exchange rate.

Naamsa was unable to provide its usual pdf summary of February new car sales, but we have attempted to summarise total vehicle sales by manufacturer. For further information, please visit the Naamsa website for online summaries.