{"id":866270,"date":"2026-07-16T16:13:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866270"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:14:00","slug":"the-top-10-best-selling-car-brands-in-south-africa-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/866270\/the-top-10-best-selling-car-brands-in-south-africa-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The top 10 best-selling car brands in South Africa right now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s Automotive Business Council, Naamsa, reported that the country’s new vehicle market continued to grow in June despite a challenging domestic economic environment marked by high inflation and rising interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council said that June’s performance is particularly noteworthy given the contraction in consumer confidence recorded during the second quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recorded that while households and businesses have become increasingly cautious amid rising fuel costs and broader economic uncertainty, vehicle demand remained underpinned by essential mobility needs and ongoing economic activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ability of the market to sustain growth in a more uncertain economic environment underscores the essential nature of domestic product offerings and the continued role of the automotive sector in enabling economic participation, trade and logistics activity across the country,\u201d said Naamsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The June 2026 new passenger car market at 38,393 units recorded an increase of 5,882 units, or 18.1%, compared to the 32,511 new cars sold in June 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Car rental sales accounted for 9.7% of new passenger vehicles sold during the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, including bakkies and minibuses, at 13,171 units in June 2026, recorded a gain of 1,016 units, or 8.4%, compared to 12,155 units sold in June 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toyota has established a lead of over 36,000 sales at the halfway point of 2026, positioning it far ahead of all other vehicle brands in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data analysts from SEO Backlinks<\/a> have compiled the national top 10 from six monthly new-vehicle sales releases covering January to June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first half of 2026, South Africa recorded 315,303 new-vehicle sales, which is 36,148 more than the revised total of 279,155 sold during the same period in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

June alone saw 54,482 units sold, reflecting a 15.3% year-on-year increase and marking the strongest June total since 2007. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best-selling brands in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Toyota led the market with 70,653 vehicles sold, accounting for 22.4% of the market share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although its sales rose by 4.0% year on year, its market share decreased by approximately 1.9 percentage points, as the overall market grew at a faster rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzuki secured second place with 34,617 sales and an 11.0% market share, finishing 3,652 units ahead of the Volkswagen Group, which sold 30,965 vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzuki’s sales increased by 0.5% from the previous year, while Volkswagen saw a growth of 5.4%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hyundai maintained its fourth position, followed by Ford and GWM in fifth and sixth place, respectively, while Chery ranked seventh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GWM experienced a 31.9% year-on-year increase, and Chery grew by 24.9%, making them two of the fastest-growing brands near the top of the list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isuzu took the eighth spot, Jetour ninth, and Mahindra tenth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jetour registered the largest increase among the top 10, soaring by 228.8%, while Kia finished just outside the rankings in 11th place with 9,250 sales, trailing Mahindra by 893 units.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToyota’s lead remains enormous, but Jetour made the sharpest move in both sales and market share,\u201d said SEO Backlinks Founder Daniel Weston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompetitive pricing, a wider model choice, better availability and fleet orders could all affect the table, although the sales figures alone cannot prove which factor mattered most,\u201d said Weston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ranking uses total domestic vehicle sales by manufacturer, so it includes passenger, light commercial and commercial vehicles and keeps manufacturer groups in the form used in the official tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Market share is measured against the revised first-half total of 315,303, while year-on-year changes come from adding the equivalent six 2025 monthly tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top 10 best-selling car brands in South Africa in 2026 so far are:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Brand<\/strong><\/td>Sales<\/strong><\/td>Market Share<\/strong><\/td>Year-on-Year (YoY) Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Toyota<\/strong><\/td>70,653<\/td>22.4%<\/td>Up 4.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki<\/strong><\/td>34,617<\/td>11.0%<\/td>Up 0.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Volkswagen Group<\/strong><\/td>30,965<\/td>9.8%<\/td>Up 5.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Hyundai<\/strong><\/td>18,339<\/td>5.8%<\/td>Up 1.3%<\/td><\/tr>
Ford<\/strong><\/td>17,029<\/td>5.4%<\/td>Up 2.2%<\/td><\/tr>
GWM<\/strong><\/td>15,610<\/td>5.0%<\/td>Up 31.9%<\/td><\/tr>
Chery<\/strong><\/td>14,593<\/td>4.6%<\/td>Up 24.9%<\/td><\/tr>
Isuzu<\/strong><\/td>12,301<\/td>3.9%<\/td>Up 0.7%<\/td><\/tr>
Jetour<\/strong><\/td>10,869<\/td>3.4%<\/td>Up 228.8%<\/td><\/tr>
Mahindra<\/strong><\/td>10,143<\/td>3.2%<\/td>Up 5.5%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans are buying more new cars in 2026, despite a challenging economic environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":866289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2077758659728126109","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[10421,25746,2041],"class_list":["post-866270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-naamsa","tag-seo-backlinks","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866270","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866270"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866565,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866270\/revisions\/866565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}