South Africa Full Year 2019: Toyota Hilux & VW Polo Vivo most popular, Renault Kwid shines in weakest market in 9 years (-2.8%)

First Top 10 finish for the Renault Kwid, up to #4 in December.

Discover over 45 years of South African Historical Data here.

The South African new vehicle market endures a 5th year-on-year decline in the past 6 years in 2019 at -2.8% to 536.626 units, the lowest annual result since 2010. But like last year exports are on a roll, up 10.2% to an all-time record 386.863 units. Toyota (-2.6%) easily wins the manufacturers race with 24.2% share, distancing the Volkswagen Group (-0.6%), Ford (-12.6%) and Nissan (-10.6%), the latter two in great difficulty. Suzuki (+28.1%) and Renault (+6.9%) post the largest gains in the Top 10 but the BMW Group (-17.8%) and Mercedes (-6.9%) struggle. Chinese carmaker Haval successful launches in South Africa, landing directly at #12 with 1.4% share. Mahindra (+28.7%), Peugeot-Citroen (+26.1%), Mitsubishi (+13.1%) and Porsche (+12.3%) also shine.

No surprise atop the South African models ranking in 2019: the Toyota Hilux (+2.3%) secures its 10th win in the past 11 years and improves its share to 7.6% thanks to sales maintained above the 40.000 unit-mark. The VW Polo Vivo (+7.8%) leapfrogs past the Ford Ranger (-16.3%) and VW Polo (-24.3%) to return to the #2 spot overall for the first time since 2014, ending a streak of four consecutive years of pickups holding the Top 2 spots. The Nissan NP200 (-11.3%) aka Dacia Logan Pickup rounds up the Top 5 above the Isuzu D-Max (+1054.7%) replacing the KB. The Renault Kwid (+22.2%) soars 5 spots on 2018 to secure its first ever South African Top 10 finish, its facelift propelling it to an all-time record #4 in December. The Ford Ecosport (+69.8%) also scores its first annual Top 10 at #9. The Toyota Hiace is the best-selling 2019 launch at #11 even though it is just a new generation Quantum renamed to fit worldwide norms. New for December 2019, the Kia Seltos (#20) and Hyundai Venue (#33) both make promising starts.

Previous month: South Africa November 2019: Facelifted Renault Kwid leaps to record #6 in market back down (-5.8%)

Previous year: South Africa 2018: Toyota Hilux records 9th win in past 10 years, VW Polo up 30% to #3

Two years ago: South Africa 2017: Toyota Hilux snaps 8th win in past 9 years

Full Year 2019 Top 37 All-manufacturers and Top 320 All-models vs. Full Year 2018 figures below.

Full December 2019 Top 37 All-manufacturers and Top 255 All-models below.