The April sales and export figures are out for the motor industry in South Africa and it seems like the legacy brands have been fighting back against the Chinese onslaught. The overall local sales numbers are up by roughly 13%% compared to last year and the exports are down by roughly 4% when looking at April 2025. The 49979 vehicles sold and exported last month is an increase of 13% compared to the same time last year and the last time the SA market sold so many new vehicles was back in 2013 so who knows what next months figures will bring.
What is interesting to see the breakdown which sales channels did what and dealerships accounted for 91% , the rental market like Avis and Budget 5.1%, corporate fleet leasing 2.3% and Government sales 1.6%. If you saw the state of government vehicles then this may become a regular purchase each month.
The Chinese models account for roughly 16% of the 49979 new sales in April this year and this is all about price. We know BYD is heavily in debt owing suppliers over 9 months in payments which could tank the Chinese auto sector at any point and is a proper time bomb ready to explode. We know what happened with Evergrande and this is an identical playbook. How many of BYD suppliers also supply other Chinese auto brands is anyone's guess as it could be many or none. This would be alarming for anyone owning a Chinese vehicle and why I think the majority are unaware of what us happening behind the scenes.
Volkswagen managed to export 10 152 vehicles, BMW 6100 and Mercedes 5500 with Mercedes not being highlighted in the top 15 sales figures for April due to only selling 432 units in total.
Toyota and Suzuki are out front dominating the SA market and one could almost call them one company because Toyota is integrating engines, parts and certain models into the Suzuki portfolio which are looking very similar to other Toyota vehicles. We know they have collaborated covering the entry level models so Toyota has a larger slice of the market.
Volkswagen in third also includes Audi sales is the top exporter with the VW Polo range heading to Europe. Mercedes sales in the US are up 20% in the first quarter even with the tariffs in place.
Another interesting point is the number of EV cars sold this month even with the higher petrol and diesel prices rising by over 33% and 50% respectively. The depreciation of the Rand against the Dollar did not help imports as SA imports fuel in it's finished form due to a lack of local refineries which are basically non existent due to no maintenance with all but 1 shut down.
The hybrid and EV numbers totaled 802 out of a total of the 34 000 vehicles sold locally so this is still a market that has to grow at some point once the infrastructure is in place to support these vehicles. One would be kind of crazy to go all electric under these circumstances due to the history of non power supply and still so much uncertainty.