866 new vehicles were sold in June, which is 96 more than were sold in May and represents a 2.7% y/y increase from the 843 vehicles sold in June 2021. The first half of 2022 has observed a total of 5,181 new vehicle sales, of which 2,668 were passenger vehicles, 2,175 light commercial vehicles, and 338 medium and heavy commercial vehicles. By comparison, the first half of 2021 saw 4,893 new vehicles sold. On a twelve-month cumulative basis, a total of 9,716 new vehicles were sold at the end of June, representing an 8.1% y/y increase from the 8,989 sold over the comparable period a year ago.
A total of 427 new passenger vehicles were sold during June, an increase of 5.4% m/m from the 405 sold in May, but a 0.7% y/y decrease from the 430 vehicles sold in June 2021. On a 12-month cumulative basis, new passenger vehicle sales have increased by 23.2% y/y to 4,875. Year-to-date, new passenger vehicles sales exceeded 2020 and 2021 levels, with 2,668 new passenger vehicles sold so far this year, a 74.5% and 17.2% increase from the new passenger vehicles sold over the same period in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
A total of 439 new commercial vehicles were sold in June, representing an increase of 20.3% m/m and 6.3% y/y. While all three subcategories recorded better sales than in May, the month-on-month increase was primarily driven by a rebound in light commercial vehicle sales of 21.4% m/m. There was a noticeably drop in Toyota’s light commercial vehicle sales in both May and June following the temporary closure of the production plant in KwaZulu-Natal. Despite this, light commercial vehicle sales were still in line with the monthly average for the year as customers switched to other brands who were able to deliver new light commercial vehicles. Medium- and heavy commercial vehicle sales fell 31.6% y/y and 19.0% y/y respectively, while light commercial vehicles sales rose 13.3% y/y. On a twelve-month cumulative basis, light commercial vehicles sales fell by 4.3% y/y to 4,135, medium commercial vehicles fell by 6.3% y/y to 178, while heavy commercial vehicles increased by 1.5% y/y to 528.
Toyota continues to lead the new passenger vehicle sales segment with 31.7% of the segment sales year-to-date, followed by Volkswagen with 20.4% of the market share. The two top brands maintained their large gap over the rest of the market with Kia and Suzuki following with 9.0% and 7.8% of the market, respectively, leaving the remaining 31.0% of the market to other brands.
On a year-to-date basis, Toyota maintained its dominance in the light commercial vehicle space with a 48.8% market share, followed by Nissan with 13.6% of the market. Hino continues to lead the medium commercial vehicle segment with 29.3% of sales year-to-date, closely followed by Mercedes-Benz with 24.0% of the market share. Scania remained the leader in the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle segment with 33.1% of the market share year-to-date.
The Bottom Line
In context, June’s new vehicle sales figure was in line with the monthly average for the year. On a 12-month cumulative basis, new passenger vehicle sales have rebounded to the pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019 but seems unlikely to exceed it meaningfully in the short-term. New commercial vehicle sales continue to hover around the 4,800 level on a 12-month cumulative basis, where it has been for the past two years now, indicating stagnant demand in this sector. The last time cumulative commercial vehicle sales were at these levels was in 2006.