By Khulekani Dumisa

Toyota has clinched the top new sales spot in August selling over 10,000 new vehicles. The Hilux led the way. Notching up 3 335 sales, Hilux sales were made up of 1,732 double cabs, 1,058 single cabs and 545 extra cabs. This together with laudable performances from Hiace (1,298), Starlet (1,203), Urban Cruiser (876), Fortuner (856) and Corolla Quest (806) saw Toyota surge to the top of the leader board for the eighth consecutive month this year, recording a total of 10,543 (market share: 25.4%) sales across the Toyota, Lexus and Hino brands.

Lexus and Hino join party

The company’s luxury arm Lexus had a few models that registered double-digit figures, including ES (11), RX (10) and 11 units for UX (all of which are hybrid variants). On the truck front, Hino sold a total of 251 units in August.

For the month of August, just over 1.33 million parts’ pieces were supplied to the domestic dealers while a further 278 000 pieces were shipped to foreign markets.

Total of 75,323 units sold year to date

Commenting on the market, Leon Theron, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TSAM, says that the “ongoing challenges in the domestic new vehicle segment are worrying, although Toyota is once again the only motor manufacturer that has successfully breached the 10,000 sales threshold in the last few years. Of interest though, is that Toyota has managed an average market share of 24.9% this – which is quite encouraging in the current economic climate.”

Theron adds that the combined impact of general retail lethargy – compounded by the economy’s start-stop economy due to COVID-19 – has contributed to a less-than-desirable overall market result but Toyota is “weathering the storm well”. While this has been a particularly challenging year for the automotive industry, Toyota is proud to have amassed a total of 75,323 units – year to date.