South African auto market in 2020 falls by 23.3% as the pandemic significantly affects sales. Full-Year sales have been 380.440, while Renault reports the worst performance on the leaderboard by falling 41.1%.
Market Trend
The South African vehicle market was hit harshly in 2020 as the global pandemic has impacted sales tremendously. In fact, sales fell 23.3% YoY.
The automotive industry represents one of the most relevant sectors for South Africa.
In the country, there are based several plants producing not only for the domestic market but for the entire South African region and for other places in the World. However, in the last years, the South African economy was struggling and all industrial sectors have been hit, including the automotive, and the demand for new vehicles has been slow for years.
The domestic light vehicles market achieved an all-time volume record in 2013 with near 615.000 units. After that peak, sales declined any year, and in 2019 sales landed at the lowest score out of the last nine, with few units more than half a million.
After starting the year flat (-0.3%), the market quickly collapsed in March as the virus struck. The sharpest drop in sales this year was in April when sales declined by 97.5% as the country was put in lockdown. In June sales recovered due to the pent up demand (-3.6%), but remained down in double digits until December (-8.7%).
Indeed, Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 380.449, reporting a decline of 23.3% compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-30.4%) lost 2.5% market share, followed by Volkswagen (-20.5%), which gained 0.4% share. Ford lost 1.1% share, falling 30.7%. Hyundai reached 4th place (-10.9%), followed by Nissan which fell 1 spot and lost 39.5%.
Isuzu -up 1 spot- grew effectively by rising 8.7%, followed by Suzuki which reported the best performance in the leaderboard, gaining 9.2%, and Renault which on the other hand fell 2 spots and lost 41.1% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have Mercedes -up 1 spot- up 0.9% this year and Kia which fell in 10th position, losing 19.3%.
The most sold vehicle has been the Volkswagen Polo (-22.6%) with 40.367 units sold holding 10.5% share.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for top 10 Brands.
