{"id":811881,"date":"2025-02-15T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=811881"},"modified":"2025-02-15T09:02:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T07:02:44","slug":"hatchbacks-vs-crossovers-in-south-africa-the-winner-is-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/811881\/hatchbacks-vs-crossovers-in-south-africa-the-winner-is-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatchbacks vs Crossovers in South Africa – the winner is clear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa has cemented itself as a crossover nation, with the vehicle type shooting past hatchbacks as the passenger vehicle of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data from analytics group Lightstone shows that crossover\/SUV vehicles were by far the most popular vehicle type purchased in South Africa in 2024, accounting for close to 40% of vehicles purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hatchbacks are the second-most popular vehicle type, but their share of new vehicle purchases has been steadily declining since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time hatchbacks topped the market was in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, South Africa’s new vehicle sale market had a tough 2024, with overall purchases declining 3% to 515,853 sold (down from 531,557 in 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, passenger vehicle sales showed some growth, with new vehicle purchases up 1% to 351,556 over 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light commercial and commercial vehicle sales accounted for the declines, down 12% and 5%, respectively, Lightstone said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crossover\/SUV market grew from 35% to just under 40% of the Light Vehicle market in 2024, while other body shapes either held steady or declined marginally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Best-selling cars in 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While crossover\/SUVs are the overall top-selling body types in South Africa, the VW Polo Vivo remains the best-selling car in the country overall, scoring the top spot for hatchbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Naamsa’s vehicle data for the overall year, the VW Polo outsold its closest competitor by more than 4,000 units, also growing its sales remarkably year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, second place does go to a crossover, with the Toyota Corolla Cross taking silver with 21,800 units sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the 10 best-selling vehicles in 2024:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo: 25,913 units <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2. Toyota Corolla Cross: 21,861 units <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. Suzuki Swift: 15,768 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. Toyota Starlet: 1,129 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5. Hyundai Grand i10: 13,583 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

6. Chery Tiggo 4 Pro: 12,646 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

7. Volkswagen Polo (hatch): 12,253 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

8. Toyota Fortuner: 10,666 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

9. Nissan Magnite: 10,059 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

10. Haval Jolion: 9,213 units<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to vehicle body types, South Africans have a clear favourite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":786052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[10479,17645,10475,7421,10421,5364,12466,2041,9547],"class_list":["post-811881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-chery","tag-haval","tag-hyundai","tag-lightstone","tag-naamsa","tag-nissan","tag-suzuki","tag-toyota","tag-vw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811922,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811881\/revisions\/811922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}