Standard Bank, Africa’s largest lender by assets, says Chinese car brands are defying market challenges in SA, having registered sales growth consistently since 2022 with Haval emerging as the most popular brand.
Derick de Vries, head of automotive retail at Standard Bank vehicle and asset finance, said Chinese cars had mostly found favour in Gauteng, where Standard Bank concluded 54% of Chinese car brand deals, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
“Even though Chinese brands currently represent less than 10% of our retail sales, their upward trajectory is remarkable given the challenging market conditions,” De Vries said.
Haval is the most popular Chinese brand financed by Standard Bank since 2022 followed by Chery and BAIC.
“Furthermore, the used car market for Chinese brands is expanding. The proportion of used Chinese car brands financed by the bank increased from 20% in 2022 to 36% in July 2024. The growing popularity of used cars is evident across the market, with pre-owned cars accounting for 70% of Standard Bank VAF’s [vehicle and asset finance] a sales year-to-date compared to 62% in 2022,” De Vries said.
Haval and Chery have had a strong showing in SA, shrugging off previous misconceptions and reputation of Chinese-built vehicles.
Companies such as Haval, a subsidiary of Great Wall Motors (GWM), and Chinese state-owned carmaker Chery are now outpacing certain Japanese, European and American brands.
De Vries said these brands were gaining traction, reflecting the broader global trend of Chinese vehicles taking more market share, driven by competitive pricing and growing consumer confidence.
“We are seeing a notable shift in the SA automotive market because of the popularity of Chinese car brands. We constantly see GWM brands in the top 10 of Naamsa’s vehicle sales by manufacturer list,” De Vries said.
“The Automotive Business Council’s quarterly reviews confirm that year-on-year new-vehicle sales have been declining since the third quarter of 2023. In the second quarter of 2024, new-vehicle sales dropped by 9.6% compared to the corresponding quarter in 2023 (alternatively, we can quote a quarter-on-quarter decline of 12.1% from Q1 2024). During this same period, Standard Bank Vehicle Finance financed more new Chinese car brands.”
SA is the largest automotive market in Africa.
At the 15th Brics summit in Johannesburg last year models of Chinese brands such as GWM, BAIC and Chery were chosen as official vehicles.
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