There’s positive news on the new vehicle sales front with March 2017 statistics reflecting year-on-year improvement in all sectors as well as exports, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa).
Aggregate new vehicle sales increased by 2.1%, while export sales rose by 7.8% when compared to the previous year.
Domestic sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) reported a slight increase of 1.1% resulting in sales of only 169 more units in comparison with March 2016.
Medium and heavy commercial vehicles recorded fairly strong gains at 11.2% and 7.4% respectively, while new vehicle exports grew by 7.8%, which according to Naamsa was in line with expectations.
Commenting on the statistics released by the dti, a Naamsa spokesperson said that the performance of the automotive industry was closely correlated with the overall performance of the country’s economy.
He added that in light of recent political events, and South Africa’s credit rating downgrade to “junk status”, the organisation would not be releasing projections for domestic vehicle sales until conditions settled down and there was more clarity.
