(5 minutes read)
· In South Africa, the July 2020 new passenger car market had registered a substantial decline
· The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), said the car market fell by 10 552 cars or a fall of 35.8%. From a peak of 29 457 new cars sold in July last year, the sales declined drastically to 18 905 units
· Exports also registered a similar traction. Vehicle exports for July 2020 was 10 381 units (vehicles) or 29.6%.
· In 2019 July, 35 087 vehicles were exported. One silver lining is that the export performance for July 2020 reflected an improvement over June 2020
In South Africa, the July 2020 new passenger car market had registered a substantial decline. The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), said the car market fell by 10 552 cars or a fall of 35.8%. From a peak of 29 457 new cars sold in July last year, the sales declined drastically to 18 905 units.
The NAAMSA also maintained that the car rental industry comprised only 1.4% in July 2020 compared to the nearly 20% in July 2019. This was because of the slow pick up of the tourism industry due to the lock down.
The domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini-buses at 11, 123 units during July, had recorded a decline of 2736 units or a fall of 19.7% from the 13 859 light commercial vehicles sold during the same period a year ago.
Of the total reported industry sales of 32 396 vehicles, dealer sales accounted for 93.6% or 30 325 units in absolute terms. Close to 3.1% of the sales was towards beefing up corporate fleets, 2.9% sales to the government, and a miniscule 0.4% represented sales to the vehicle rental industry.
Exports also registered a similar traction. Vehicle exports for July 2020 was 10 381 units (vehicles) or 29.6%. In 2019 July, 35 087 vehicles were exported. One silver lining is that the export performance for July 2020 reflected an improvement over June 2020. As the domestic automotive industry’s major export destinations are starting to ease their lockdown restrictions with many actively stimulating their new vehicle markets with large financial government incentives, the export segment is likely to pick up in the months to come.
