By Otsile Kadiege

Last month’s floods in KwaZulu-Natal caused loss of life and major damages to property. Unfortunately, Toyota South Africa Motors’ Prospecton Plant, located in the South of Durban, wasn’t spared resulting in the temporary shutdown of the plant. TSAM however managed to keep its sales leadership in April – posting 8, 952 units on the sales charts. That said, the Japanese automaker’s local arm braces for challenging months ahead.

In the LCV segment, Hilux was – once again – the top performer while the Corolla Cross made a strong showing in the Passenger segment. The latter registered a total of 1,421 sales to help Toyota garner a total of 4,486 in the Passenger category. Other top performers in the group included Urban Cruiser (613), Fortuner (618) and Starlet (510).

On the luxury front, Lexus totalled 51 sales – including 17 ES models, and 12 RX units. Hino trucks sold a total of 214 units in April.

On the LCV front, Hilux continued to lead the way with 2,778 units sold – including 1,463 Double Cabs, 356 Xtra Cabs and 969 Single Cabs. Hiace posted 1,084 models, while Land Cruiser Pick-Up registered 205 sales. In total, Toyota retailed 4,252 LCVs – translating to a market share of 44.5% in this segment.

TSAM’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing says: “April is traditionally a slow month for retail due to the numerous public holidays – but the situation was compounded by the flooding at our plant in Prospecton, Durban. We are anticipating stock challenges with regards to our locally-built models such as Hilux, Fortuner, Corolla Cross and Quest, Hiace Ses’fikile and some Hino models.”