Johannesburg - After failing to match the growth seen in the passenger car market in recent times, light commercial vehicle sales gathered momentum in October, growing 15.9% year-on-year versus the 3.1% gain made by cars and SUVs.
There are no prizes for guessing which bakkie dominated the market last month, with the Toyota Hilux putting in another strong performance – 2 470 units sold, according to Naamsa.
However, the Hilux could face a serious challenge in 2022, with all-new versions of the Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max entering local production. The current version of these are in the run-out phase, with Isuzu edging its rival out with 1 548 sales in October, versus Ford’s 1363.
The Nissan Navara, which is now locally built and available in a much wider range, took fourth spot, but with a volume of 650 units it has some way to go in outright volume terms.
The GWM Steed completed the top five with 618 sales, and it was followed by the Mahindra Scorpio Pik-Up (561), Nissan NP200 (520) and GWM P-Series (501).
But the bakkie market is a fickle one, with some highly competent products achieving just a fraction of the sales volumes enjoyed by the big three.
The Volkswagen Amarok was the best among the worst-sellers in October, with 142 sales, while Mitsubishi sold just 30 Tritons and the new Mazda BT-50 managed just 10 sales.
The Nissan Hardbody NP300, which is being discontinued, saw a volume of 43 while Suzuki sold 67 Super Carry commercial vehicles.
TOP 10 BAKKIES: OCTOBER 2021
- Toyota Hilux – 2 470
- Isuzu D-Max – 1 548
- Ford Ranger – 1 363
- Nissan Navara – 650
- GWM Steed – 618
- Mahindra Scorpio Pik-Up – 561
- Nissan NP200 – 520
- GWM P-Series – 501
- Hyundai H100 – 260
- Toyota Land Cruiser PU – 216
If we combine LCV and car sales, Toyota sold the most vehicles in South Africa last month, with a volume of 9 928. It was followed by Volkswagen (5975), Nissan (3 059), Hyundai (2 804) and Suzuki (2 593).
The overall market grew by 6.1% versus the same month last year, however it was 4.9% down on September 2021 as supply chain disruptions took their toll.
“The sigh of relief with the country’s move to adjusted alert level 1 from 1 October 2021 was short-lived due to the adverse events that occurred during the month, including the three-week strike in the steel and engineering sector as well as businesses having to endure several days of rolling blackouts during the month ahead of the local government elections,” Naamsa said in response to October’s sales numbers.
“In addition to Covid-19 supply chain disruptions resulting in vessel and container shortages consequently resulting in higher logistics costs, load shedding remained an area of great concern impacting on the ability of the industry to plan and grow.”