Total new vehicle sales (as reported by NAAMSA yesterday) recorded surprisingly strong growth in October of 18.9y/y. Year-to-date domestic sales remained 16.5% ahead of the corresponding ten month period in 2010.
Total new car sales during October 2011 were recorded at 36 826 units, reflecting an improvement of 6 076 new cars or an increase of 19.8% compared to the 30 750 new cars sold during October 2010. A major contributor to the ongoing strength in the new car market in recent months was the continued above average demand by car rental companies with the car rental industry during October accounting for 19.4% of total new car sales.
Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses recorded sales of 12 994 units for October, which reflected an increase of 1 754 units or a gain of 15.6% compared to the corresponding month last year. Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry recorded 829 units and 1 689 units respectively, an increase of 199 units or 31.6%, in the case of medium commercial vehicles and a gain of 280 units or 19.9%, in the case of heavy trucks and buses, compared to the corresponding month last year.
October export sales of 25 860 units registered a marginal decline of 712 units or 2.7% compared to October 2010.
The continued strength in the new car market in October 2011 is due to a number of factors, including improvement in the financial position of consumers on the back of relatively low interest rates, improvement of vehicle affordability and the positive influence of aggressive marketing and sales incentive programmes during the month.
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