By Otsile Kadiege

Despite a decline in new car demand in the South African car market, Toyota maintains its sales momentum by delivering 12 440 units in October for a 27.4% slice of the new vehicle market; year-to-date equating to a 26.7% share. It’s the sixth time this year that Toyota has crested the 10 000 mark.

The Hilux remains the country’s most popular vehicle, with Toyota shifting 3,110 units. Overall, Toyota enjoys a commanding 42% share of the LCV market with other notable contributions in this space coming from Hiace (1,496), Land Cruiser 79 (248) and Quantum on 199 units retailed. Once again, it’s important to note that this is against a 3% drop-off in the total LCV market.

It’s a similar story for the passenger market which experienced a decline of 1 068 cars, or a loss of 3.5% over the same period in 2022. Toyota’s 23.1% share of this market, however, reflects a consistent performance. The locally produced Corolla Cross remains the star attraction in the company’s passenger-car arsenal, garnering 2 100 sales to give it second place on the podium. Another good showing for Starlet on 1 363 units puts it in fourth position while, for the first time, the Vitz on 779 units has placed in the top ten.

Naturally, SUVs dominate passenger sales and Toyota has a number of models competing in this space across several segments: Fortuner (629), Land Cruiser 300 (279) and RAV4 (107). Toyota says RAV4 sales have been hampered by global supply constraints. The SUV trend is also reflected in the most popular models sold in the Lexus stable – NX and LX achieving sales of 22 and 15 units respectively.