South Africa March 2022: Market up 16.5% to highest since October 2019, Toyota Corolla Cross #2

Toyota Corolla Cross

New vehicle sales in South Africa soar 16.5% year-on-year in March to 50,607 units, making it the largest monthly volume since October 2019. Passenger cars and SUVs are up 27% to 33,790 units, light commercial vehicles down -2.7% to 13,795, medium trucks up 18.4% to 798 and heavy trucks up 14.5% to 2,044. 85.8% of the March volume is from dealerships, 8.2% from rentals, 4.6% from government sales and 1.4% from corporate fleets.

Toyota remains the best-selling manufacturer by far with 29.7% share, distancing the VW Group at 12.7% and Hyundai at 7.5%, up one spot on February to #3. Suzuki is knocked out of the podium at #4 while Nissan remains in 5th place with 6.2% of the market ahead of Renault and Ford both up one rank on last month to #6 and #7 respectively. Haval is down two spots but still accounts for a solid 4% of the March sales just as Kia and Isuzu round out the Top 10 like in January and February.

Model-wise, the Toyota Hilux easily retains the top spot with 9% share, but the surprise comes in 2nd place with the Toyota Corolla Cross hitting a new record ranking vs. #6 in January and #31 over the Full Year 2021. The VW Polo Vivo and Polo follow ahead of the Isuzu D-Max and Nissan NP200. #2 in January, the Toyota Starlet (aka Suzuki Baleno) is down to #8 this month while the Toyota Urban Cruiser is down five spots to #9. The Ford Ranger has a particularly weak month at #12 vs. #3 over the Full Year 2021 and we have a newcomer in the Top 20: the Renault Kiger at #19, showing further the success of models imported from India.

Previous post: South Africa January 2022: Market up 19.5%, Haval 5th best-selling brand and Jolion in Top 10

Previous year: South Africa Full Year 2021: Toyota Hilux #1 for 9th straight year, market up 22.1%

Full March 2022 Top 10 manufacturers and Top 30 models below.