An old stager and a newcomer added sheen to August’s new-vehicle sales, giving weight to the growing view that 2022 could outperform expectations.
Toyota SA, back in the manufacturing business after floods forced its Durban assembly plant to suspend operations in early April, and Chinese carmaker Chery both provided some extra oomph to a market described as “remarkably buoyant” by Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa.
Sales figures released on Thursday show that sales of new cars and commercial vehicles grew 14.2% last month compared with August 2021 — from 41,533 to 47,420.
Car sales improved 14.6%, from 27,277 to 31,269.
Chery, which had kept its sales performance under wraps since returning to the SA market in 2021, relented last month. Its 1,320 sales put it ahead of both BMW and Mercedes-Benz and skewed direct market comparison with the previous August.
Even without Chery, the market was stronger than a year earlier, raising hope the sector would continue its post-Covid-19 recovery trend.
In February, Toyota SA CEO Andrew Kirby predicted full-year growth of more than 16%, which would return the market to pre-Covid-19 levels a year earlier than previously forecast.
That optimism drained away but after three months of sales outstripping forecasts, the market so far in 2022 is almost 14% up. That is without market leader Toyota building anything for nearly four months. Having reopened in August, the plant may not return to full production until early 2023, but even limited activity is paying off.
In July, the company sold 7,110 vehicles in SA and exported seven. Last month, the respective numbers were 11,138 and 3,196. The return of the Hilux gave a big boost to the overall bakkie market. Sales and marketing head Leon Theron said on Thursday: “However, we still have an extensive backlog of orders that we have to clear, and we continue to ask for patience on the part of our customers.”
Stability
WesBank marketing head Lebogang Gaoaketse said the latest industry figures suggested “some form of stability returning to the new-vehicle market”.
He added: “August sales are also reassuring in the sense that the volume increase comes off a relatively high base. Doing so in the face of the hike in interest rates during July appears not to have dampened any market demand.”
WesBank’s book, he said, showed a continuing high of demand for new-vehicle finance. He said if history were anything to go by, he believed the market could get even better later this year.
Mabasa was not so sure. Despite some positive signs, such as a recovery in tourism and demand from car-rental firms, “the pace of steady growth ... is expected to slow down for the [rest] of the year”.
Exports also thrived in August. In all, 28,662 vehicles were shipped to foreign customers, mainly in Europe. That was 57% more than the 18,260 of a year earlier. Aggregate sales of 222,638 for the year to August were 5.8% ahead of the 210,335 at the same stage last year.
Update: September 1 2022
This story has been updated with new information.
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