Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) started the 2018 retail calendar with 11 893 units sold in January. This accounts for a remarkable market share of 25.9% out of the 45 888 total units sold in South Africa in January.
Brian Joss – Toyota is, once again, grateful to its loyal customers that the brand has managed to top both the Passenger (7 597) and Light Commercial Vehicle (4 116) segment charts for the second consecutive month.
According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) the January 2018 sales pale in comparison to the same month last year when 50 386 were recorded. However, Naamsa believes this shouldn’t be cause for concern as local economic conditions are expected to improve over the medium term.
TSAM’s total sales in January were 4 823 units ahead of the closest manufacturer. The usual IMV duo of Hilux and Fortuner led the charge with 2 695 and 1 318 respectively – claiming traditional spots as segment leaders in the charts. It was also another highly successful month for segment leaders RAV4 (871) and Avanza (665), the trio of Auris/Corolla/Quest sold no less than 2 196 units while Etios recorded a notable total of 1 519.
From the point of view of large SUVs, Land Cruiser Prado and Land Cruiser 200 also performed exceptionally well with respective totals of 191 and 188 while luxury SUVs Lexus LX (23), RX (15) and NX (22) all registered double-digit sales.
Total industry sales in the medium (313) and heavy (310) truck segments reflected a mixed performance. The Hino 500 Series started the year on a high note, achieving a 20% share of the MCV segment.
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at TSAM, Calvyn Hamman, says: “It’s both encouraging and gratifying to observe that our customers believe in the Toyota, Hino and Lexus brands – and this is evident in our sales figures. While these are undoubtedly satisfactory results – thanks to the hard work by all the Toyota divisions, dealers and suppliers – there will always be room for improvement.
“As long as we listen to the voice of the customer and make it our mission to reflect their product wishes, we will definitely keep the momentum going and finish on a higher note than we kicked off the year.”
