Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) is on course to claim four decades of industry sales leadership in the country’s auto market. While this will be a remarkable feat for TSAM, both overall industry and TSAM sales recorded modest totals in the first month of the fourth quarter of 2019.
TSAM continued its admirable sales run, with 9 324 units finding new homes during November – representing 20.8 percent of the total industry sales of 44 738 reported by the National Association of Automotive Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).
TSAM had as at the end of November, 2019, sold no less than 119 136 units – translating into a 24.1 percent market share – out of the industry total of 493 860. Offering a full range of exciting models and spearheaded by the legendary Hilux, Toyota is on the cusp of claiming 40 years of uninterrupted market leadership end of 2019.
According to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Calvyn Hamman: “The decline in the passenger segment shows a level of caution exhibited by the wider car-buying public and this can be directly attributed to the ailing economy. However, we would like to thank our loyal customers across Southern Africa and our dealer network for their support – not just in 2019 – but over the last four decades.”
NAAMSA commented that aggregate domestic vehicle sales of 44 738 units reflected a decline of 2 740 units or 5.8 percent down from the 47 478 vehicles sold in November last year. While domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles (pick-ups and minibuses) at 10 679 units during November reflects a decline of 3 038 units or a fall of 22.1 percent compared to 2018, Toyota recorded a remarkable total of 4 601 units which translates into a market share of 43.1 percent.
Top performers from the Toyota stable included the Hilux (2 588), Hiace (1 549) and Etios (858). On the truck front, Hino sold a total of 223 new trucks in November. The 300-Series recorded 122 sales (18.6 percent of the Medium Commercial V share) while the 500-Series ended the month with 74 sales (16.2 percent HCV share)