Naamsa has released its new vehicle sales report for April 2020, confirming that just 574 vehicles were registered in South Africa during the month.
Of course, the country has been on lockdown since March 26 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, with factories and dealerships having been shuttered for the whole of April. Under the new level 4 regulations, however, dealers have seemingly started to open their doors again (although they can trade only under as-yet-unclarified “specific directions”).
According to the figures released by Naamsa (note, the organisation has opted to no longer show SA’s individual model sales figures, instead putting out only aggregate sales and export numbers), new vehicle sales fell a whopping 98,4 percent in April. For reference, 36 787 units were sold locally in the same month of 2019.
Of the 574 units registered during April 2020, 318 were light commercial vehicles and 105 were passenger vehicles. The medium commercial vehicle segment added 64 units, while the extra-heavy commercial vehicle (47), bus (32) and heavy commercial vehicle (eight) segments made up the numbers.
Interestingly, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa led the way with 304 units, while Toyota was second with 93. Truck-makers Man (62) and Iveco (60) were next, with Suzuki Auto (12) in fifth and all other players in single figures, if they featured at all.
Exports for the month, meanwhile, totaled 901 units (down from 32 892 in April 2019), with some 880 coming from the light commercial segment.
