Just before the surging petrol price puts South Africans into a state of dismay, a report on the latest new vehicle sales on local soil is providing some good news for the automotive sector. February new car sales have reflected a significant increase to the same time last year which means buying patterns are returning to what they once were.
Naamsa, the Automotive Business Council stated that February new car sales in 2022 grew 18.4% compared to the same time last year. Lebogang Gaoaketse, Head of Marketing and Communication at WesBank further added that “Despite the traditionally short February selling month and in the face of interest rate hikes and fuel price increases, new vehicle sales performed reassuringly well during the month.”
The passenger segment improved most significantly by 22.4% with a total of 29,563 units sold within the 28 day month as opposed to 24,144 from the year before. The LCV segment enjoyed a 9.4% increase with 12,290 new units being sold in comparison to 11,232 from 2021 while the commercial segment also enjoyed a notable improvement with 2,376 new vehicles being sold as opposed to 1,993 from a year ago, this is a 19.2% increase.
Total sales for the month stand at 44,229 units which is 6,860 more than the same time last year. The usual suspects being Toyota and Volkswagen were the best sellers throughout the month with Isuzu making an appearance in the third best selling spot in the light commercial vehicles segment. The highly wagered Corolla Cross sold an impressive 1,693 units as the Japanese brand had hoped it would. Watch the Wesbank video here to see the exact numbers of each make and model.
After the first two months of 2022, the new vehicle market is already 18.8% and after 85,559 units have been sold in comparison to the year-to-date performance of 2021. This goes against what many forecasts predicted for the market this year.
