Dec 01, 2021 Lightstone Auto, Pieter Wessels,
South Africa’s favourite vehicle body shapes
South Africans are buying more Crossover/SUV body shapes than any other, with purchases more than doubling from 14% of the market in 2011 to 31% at end October in 2021*.
While the Crossover/SUV body shape is the best-selling category this year, its growth has been matched in percentage terms by Double Cabs, which has seen its share of new Light Vehicle sales jump to 13% in 2021.
In 2011, new vehicle sales in the Light Vehicle Market (both Passenger and Light Commercial vehicles) were dominated by the Hatch, Sedan and Single Cab Pick-Up body shapes, which were responsible for more than 70% of all Light Vehicle sales.
The Crossover/ SUV body shape enjoyed 14% of the total vehicle sales in 2011, while the Double Cab Pick-Up enjoyed 6% market share. The graph below shows the growth in popularity of Crossover/SUV and Double Cab body shapes, and the decline of the Hatch and Single Cab shapes, and most significantly, the Sedan.
“As recently as 2003, Sedans enjoyed a market share of 30%. This has slipped over the past ten years, however, from 20% in 2011 to 6% in 2021”, says https://www.lightstoneauto.co.za/ Managing Director Pieter Wessels.
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Lightstone has selected the top two body shapes in 2011 and the top two body shapes in 2021 – in terms of market share – for a range of provinces, to demonstrate how the buying patterns in these regions have changed over the past decade.
While the Hatch shape has lost its top spot in many areas, it is currently still the second biggest selling body shape. The only area where the Hatch was not the first in 2011 was in Namibia, which was dominated by Single Cab sales. Namibia is also the only region listed which did not see the Crossover/SUV segment in the top spot in 2021.
These results are essentially mirrored across all the major urban areas, with the Crossover/ SUV and Double Cab body shapes the most improved over the last 10 years in terms of market share.
“The only other body shape which has seen growth in market share across all these regions is the Extended Cab Pick-Up,” says Wessels.
As far as the best-selling body shape in the biggest metros, the only area where the Crossover/SUV has not overtaken the Hatch as the top-selling shape is eThekwini, where the latter, despite dropping from a market share of almost 40% in 2011 to 33% in 2021, is still just out-selling the former.
*All reference to 2021 is of YTD data as of the end of October 2021.
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