CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s new vehicle market sold 55,449 vehicles in March, virtually unchanged from the 55,440 vehicles sold in the year-earlier period, figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa) showed.
Domestic new vehicle sales registered improvements in light, medium and heavy commercial vehicle categories, but sales to the consumer-driven new car market declined. Dealer sales represented about 88% of the new vehicles sold in March, with 4.7% sold to government, 3.9% to industry corporate fleets and 2.9% to the rental car market.
Naamsa said the outstanding feature in March was the big growth in vehicle exports, which surged more than 38% year on year to 34,147 units. It ascribed the bulk of the improvement to the export sales contribution by Mercedes-Benz.”The South African vehicle manufacturing industry (is) showing clear signs of realizing its potential, particularly in respect of vehicle exports,” Naamsa said.
