The pandemic has a stranglehold on most of the vehicle industry. While trying to survive a global crisis, buying a vehicle would likely fall very low on the list of peoples’ priority list.
Now, with the tail end of the pandemic hopefully at our doorsteps, one hopes that we can recover and revitalise many sectors that have suffered during the pandemic. An indicator of the progress of recovery can be seen in the vehicle sales industry.
NAAMSA has released figures for March 2022, and in an unexpected turn of events, many sectors have reported an increase in sales. In March 2021 monthly new vehicle sales sat at 43 423, but compared to this time last year, the aggregate new vehicle sales increased by 7 184. According to NAAMSA figures, March 2022 saw the highest number of new vehicle sales since October 2019. As a result of continued restrictions affecting global trade, export sales have declined by 12,4% in March 2022. This decline means that only 34 285 units were exported compared to the 39 146 in March 2021. Despite the decline, there is an optimistic outlook for the rest of 2022.
Reported industry sales for March totalled 50 607 units. Of the overall sales, 43 441 (85,8%) of those were sales made to dealers. Approximately 4 149 (8,2%) of the overall figure was made up of the vehicle rental industry. Roughly 2 327 vehicles (4,2% of the overall) were sold to the government and the rest of the cars were reportedly a part of the industry’s corporate fleets.
There has been a slight decline in the new vehicle, bakkies, and mini-bus sales. A reported decrease of 2,7% has been noted. March 2022 saw 13 795 new light vehicle units sold while the figure for March 2021 was 14 364. Sales of medium and heavy truck segments of the industry reported positive performance increases for March, too.
Many factors could be contributing to the increased performance, such as the growing desire from consumers to buy new vehicles or the expanding model ranges and choices presented to consumers. Amid global conflict and the ever-present Covid-19 pandemic, the vehicle industry and all accompanying sectors could either see an increase or a drastic decrease as 2022 progresses.
