{"id":814975,"date":"2025-03-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=814975"},"modified":"2025-03-04T13:52:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T11:52:45","slug":"these-3-car-brands-are-slowly-taking-over-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/814975\/these-3-car-brands-are-slowly-taking-over-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"3 car brands taking over South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Car buyers prioritise affordability over everything else, and South Africans turn to Chery, Mahindra, and Suzuki while other, more expensive brands are struggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the TransUnion Vehicle Price Index for Q4 2024, the South African automotive sector experienced a cautious recovery, influenced by improved macroeconomic factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlighted that interest rate cuts, lower inflation, and a stronger rand contributed to increased consumer confidence and enhanced vehicle affordability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite these positive developments, rising costs, evolving brand preferences, and shifting financing trends continued to shape the market as affordability became the primary concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most telling trends of this transition is the pricing disparity between new and used vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TransUnion report noted that new vehicle prices increased by 1.7%, driven by supply chain constraints and production costs, while used vehicle prices declined by 2.8%, indicating greater demand for affordable second-hand cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data shows South Africans increasingly prioritise affordability, with many opting for pre-owned cars over new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financing trends further highlighted this affordability-driven preference. TransUnion Africa\u2019s Vice President of Sales, Marcia Mayaba, pointed out that financing for used vehicles outpaced new car financing at a ratio of 1.56 to 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standard Bank also reported a 9.3% quarter-on-quarter increase in vehicle loan applications during Q4 2024\u2014the highest rise in two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However, while loan applications surged, the data revealed that the majority of South Africans still preferred second-hand cars over brand-new models,” said Standard Bank Vehicle and Asset Finance head Derick De Vries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to struggling household budgets, TransUnion noted that Asian automakers have thrived in South Africa.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to TransUnion, Mahindra, Chery, and Suzuki recorded the highest year-on-year growth in new passenger and light commercial vehicle sales, increasing by 37.4%, 23.7%, and 22%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of Chery\u2019s sub-brands, Omoda and JAECOO, along with the growing popularity of BAIC, has further solidified the dominance of Asian carmakers. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Suzuki’s best-selling model in South Africa\u2014the Suzuki Swift hatchback. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In contrast, the report further highlighted that brands such as Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, and BMW experienced year-on-year declines, reflecting the shift in consumer preference toward more budget-friendly options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This trend is more pronouned over the last decade, which shows asian brands are slowly taking over the South African market, especially Chery and Suzuki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An analysis by BusinessTech showed that vehicles from Asia\u2014such as Chery and Suzuki\u2014have seen massive growth over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, these two car brands collectively sold 7,699 units. This has increased by a whopping 887% to 76,020 in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is primarily thanks to Sukuzi\u2019s impressive growth, which increased sales from 6,402 in 2014 to 56,109 (776%) in 2024. While Suzuki almost hit 60,000 sales last year, Chery grew 1,435% from 1,297 to 19,911 in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This remarkable growth resulted in a notable milestone at the start of 2025. According to Naamsa, Suzuki officially surpassed the Volkswagen Group to become South Africa\u2019s second-best-selling car brand, trailing only Toyota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suzuki Swift, in particular, set a new sales record, moving 2,628 units in a single month\u2014surpassing its previous peak of 1,925 units in June 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This achievement even saw the Swift briefly surpass the Toyota Hilux as the country\u2019s top-selling vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Automobile Dealers\u2019 Association (NADA) told BusinessTech that this trend is due to the price-sensitivity shift in the South African market over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe South African vehicle market is increasingly price-sensitive, with affordability remaining a challenge due to high inflation, interest rates and fuel costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost buyers are now shopping in the sub-R350,000 range, where Chinese brands offer strong perceived value at an accessible price point,\u201d said NADA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese vehicles provide high-quality specifications, advanced technology, and competitive pricing, making them an attractive alternative to traditional luxury brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Three Asian car brands have seen significant growth and are slowly taking over the vehicle market in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":815004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[10479,15796,853,499,12466,21891],"class_list":["post-814975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-chery","tag-mahindra","tag-south-africa","tag-standard-bank","tag-suzuki","tag-transunion-vpi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814975","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814975"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815243,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814975\/revisions\/815243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}