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August sales down 2.5% for August

Sep 05, 2018 NAAMSA, car sales, economy, South Africa, Automotive, new cars, Heavy Duty, aftermarket


The latest new vehicle sales data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) has revealed a decline of 2.5% year-on-year in the month of August. At the same time, the performance of the industry has remained relatively flat from a year-to-date perspective at -0.6% over the first eight months of 2018.

Total sales for August topped at 47 964 units, of which 66% went to the passenger vehicle segment - down 2.2% year-on-year and is flat year-to-date. Light commercials contributed 29% of total sales, but down 5.8% year-on-year and 2.5% year-to-date. The commercial segment comprising buses, medium, heavy and extra-heavy vehicles made up the final 5%, and is up 16% year-on-year and 2.1% year-to-date. 

“Despite perpetual pressure on the economy this year with total industry sales remaining subdued, the dealer channel has been resilient showing 2.4% year-to-date growth.” said Ghana Msibi, WesBank’s Executive Head for Sales and Marketing.  “With four months remaining in 2018, WesBank’s forecast of 3% growth is still possible. However, if the deterioration of the rand to foreign currencies continues as we’ve seen in August, consumers could feel more of a pinch when buying new cars going forward.”

Rentals grew by 1.6% year-on-year in August, but remained 7.6% down when compared to the first eight months of last year which saw the highest rental sales ever recorded.

 

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