Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) led the way in 2022 as South African new-vehicle sales recorded a second year of post-lockdown recovery with an industry total of 528 963. Posting the company's 43rd straight year as the market leader, Toyota (including the Lexus and Hino brands) outperformed a number of retail challenges to achieve a laudable total of 132 035 new-vehicle registrations. This translates to a market share of 24,9% for 2022.

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (naamsa) observed that: “Following a robust recovery in the 2021 domestic new vehicle market, increasing year-on-year by 22,2% to 464 493 units compared to the severely COVID-19 affected 380 206 units in 2020, aggregate new vehicle sales recovered further by 13,9% to 528 963 units in 2022, but still 1,4% below the pre-pandemic 536 612 units sold in 2019.”

The association noted that: “Following a fairly upbeat first quarter 2022 industry performance, global supply chain disruptions along with the impact of the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal, elevated inflation, an upward trend in interest rates, record fuel prices, as well as record highs in the frequency and intensity of load shedding weighed heavily on both business and consumer confidence. However, the new vehicle market’s performance in 2022 remained resilient despite the multiple national and international headwinds.”

In the month of December, a total 41 783 vehicles were sold, representing an increase of 5 839 vehicles or a gain of 16,2% compared to the total new vehicle sales of 35 944 units during the corresponding month of December 2021. Toyota also finished the year on a high, achieving total sales of 11 250 vehicles in December, topping both Passenger and Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segments. Toyota achieved a market share of 26,9% in December.

In the LCV segment, Hilux was – once again – the top performer with 2 556 units sold while the Corolla Cross made a strong showing in the Passenger segment with 1 834. The latter was overall leader in passenger segment, assisting Toyota to top the category. Other top performers in the group included Starlet (1 036), Fortuner (705) and Urban Cruiser (945). A total of 275 Hino units were sold while Lexus recorded a total of 75 models. 

The role played by the Parts Supply business, which distributed a total of 1,251,850 parts pieces to the domestic market and over 300 000 to the export market, can also not be underestimated. It also reinforces the fact that customers trust genuine parts to get the job done timeously, efficiently and, in the long run, economically.

“We are truly grateful for the 26,9% market share recorded in December. We are also grateful to the entire TSAM team and dealers across the country for their continued efforts towards making Toyota a market leader, but we have learned from last year that we cannot be complacent. We emerged out of a tragedy and managed to achieve an overall market share of 24,9% in 2022 – and that’s phenomenal.

“Our mandate this year is to continue making Toyota, Lexus and Hino brands of choice for our market. We will achieve this by constantly aligning our ourselves with the customer needs communicated through our strong dealer channel,” says Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at TSAM, Leon Theron.