Toyota takes pole position in the sales race
- Toyota is top performer in August
- Hilux still number one year-to-date
- Challenging sales environment buoyed by strong export demand
| Market segment | August 2014 | August 2015 | % change |
| Passenger vehicles | 37,843 | 34,885 | -8.5% |
| Light commercial vehicles | 14,940 | 13,781 | -8.4% |
| Medium commercial vehicles | 1001 | 889 | -12.6% |
| Heavy commercial vehicles | 504 | 393 | -28% |
| Extra Heavy commercial vehicles | 1217 | 1015 | -19.9% |
| Bus | 105 | 92 | -14.1% |
| Vehicle exports | 24,989 | 28,069 | 12.3% |
| Overall market (local) | 80,599 | 79,124 | -1.9% |
The Toyota Hilux remains SA’s best-selling vehicle year-to-date, pipping its closest rival to the post by 156 units thanks to another impressive retail performance in August. The rugged, dual-purpose workhorse marked a significant milestone by recording the second-highest sales (2449) for a single model this past month.
Toyota South Africa’s Senior Vice President for Sales & Marketing, Calvyn Hamman, said Hilux is both a global and South African success story with more than 16 million sold around the world.
“Hilux has been a long-time favourite in South Africa with over a million sales under its belt and is now more popular than ever as confirmed by its ongoing, chart-topping successes,” Hamman said.
“The current model line-up continues to surprise its rivals, which gives Toyota a great launching pad to introduce the all-new Hilux early next year,” he said.
In terms of overall sales, it was yet another pole position for Toyota. The market leader’s August tally was 15 per cent higher than any other brand and lifted Toyota to a year-to-date total of more than 79,230 sales, translating to a market share of 19.4 per cent.
This is impressive given that the local market suffered an 8.2 per cent decline when compared with the number of vehicles sold in August 2014. Further skewing actual demand are the numerous incentive packages on offer by most OEMs due to a build-up of stock.
Vehicle exports softened the blow by continuing to reflect an upward momentum. Exports were pegged at 28 069 units during August 2015; this reflects a rise of 3 080 vehicles or 12.3% compared to the 24 989 export sales in August 2014. Toyota exported a total of 4429 units during this period.
Continued popularity of Fortuner and Corolla – the country’s most popular SUV and family sedan – further entrenched Toyota’s top spot in the sale race. Fortuner racking up a total of 785 sales for the month while the Corolla posted sales of 1204 units. This was supplemented by a further 882 Corolla Quest sales.
Other segment leaders for Toyota in August were Land Cruiser Pick-up (335) with the bulk of the sales going to the V8 turbo-diesel variant, the Avanza MPV with 445 unit sales and the Quantum (1150), which following its localisation, is now coming off line at the Prospecton Plant in Durban.
