Toyota records market share of 24.6% in April

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TSAM registered a total of 4,745 units in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment, claiming a market share of 43.6%, as well as a total of 3,885 units in the passenger segment with a commensurate market share of 17%.

Once again, the Hilux was the brand’s top seller with a total of 3,163 models, followed by another regular top performer in the LCV category, Hiace Ses’fikile, with 1 176 units. Toyota’s family vehicles also fared well, with Urban Cruiser posting 796, Corolla Quest 652, Fortuner 615, Starlet 506 and Agya 467.

On the luxury front, the Land Cruiser 200 and FJ Cruiser posted sales of 36 units apiece and Prado sold 62 models, while the more niche Lexus variants garnered a total of 31 sales. Hino sold a total of 180 units in April. The Hino 500-Series registered sales of 58 trucks while the 300-Series sold a total of 98 units.

Vehicle sales performance

According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa): "In view of the (full) Covod-19 country hard lockdown restrictions during April 2020, when vehicle production and retail sales came to a standstill at the time, a comparison of the April 2021 new vehicle sales and export performance with the distorted industry performance in April 2020 will not be meaningful.

"Only 574 new vehicles were sold during April 2020, therefore comparisons for April 2021 will focus on the previous month of March 2021. Aggregate domestic sales in April 2021, at 35,779 units, reflected a decline of 7,649 units, or 17.6%, from the 43,428 vehicles sold in March 2021.”

However, senior vice president of sales and marketing at TSAM, Leon Theron, says the company’s marketing strategy is not just limited to new vehicle sales leadership. He, therefore, commended local Toyota, Hino and Lexus dealerships for servicing a total of 115,725 vehicles and selling no less than 1.3 million vehicle parts locally while a further 306 000 pieces were shipped outside of our borders.

"April is traditionally a low volume sales month due to public holidays, and we are truly proud of our dealer network for the 24.6% share and can only encourage them to continue creating customer smiles and never to be complacent. We would also like to express a big thank you to fleet owners and car rental companies for their continued support and loyalty," says Theron.