Toyota vehicles sales recovered significantly in Namibia following the resumption of production at its KwaZulu Natal plant, latest figures show.
The production plant suspended operations early this year due to flooding, and failed to produce 70 000 vehicles in the four-month period it was closed.
According to IJG, new vehicle sales recovered materially last month, reaching the 1,000 level for the first time since March.
“1,051 new vehicles were sold in August, representing a 55.2% m/m increase from the 677 sold in July and a 37.9% y/y increase from the 762 new vehicles sold in August 2021. Volkswagen and Toyota were the biggest contributors to the increase in monthly new passenger vehicles in August. While all three sub-categories recorded better sales than last month, the month-on-month increase was largely driven by an increase in light commercial vehicle sales, following a recovery in sales by Toyota.”
Year-to-date 6,915 new vehicles have been sold, of which 3,574 were passenger vehicles, 2,907 light commercial vehicles, and 434 medium and heavy commercial vehicles, the research firm said.
“In comparison, 6,454 new vehicles were sold by August 2021. 2022’s new vehicle sales are very much in line with 2019’s, as the figure below shows. On a 12-month cumulative basis, a total of 9,889 new vehicles were sold as at August 2022, representing a 6.4% y/y increase from the 9,293 new vehicles sold over the comparable period a year ago,” said IJG.
Sales in the new passenger vehicle category rose to 3,574, an increase of 19% from the 3,003 sold during the same period last year.
“On a 12-month cumulative basis, new passenger vehicle sales rose by 18.8% y/y to 5,055, the highest level since December 2018, some 44 months ago.”
Toyota retained its lead in the new passenger vehicle sale segment for the month under review, claiming 29.6% of the sales on a year-to-date basis, followed by Volkswagen with a 23.3% share, slightly higher from the previous month.
“The two top brands maintained their large gap over the rest of the market with Kia and Suzuki following with 9.2% and 8.2% of the market, respectively, leaving the remaining 29.7% of the market to other brands.”
“On a year-to-date basis, Toyota also maintained its dominance in the light commercial vehicle space with a 45.9% market share, followed by Nissan with 13.5%. Hino continues to lead the medium commercial vehicle segment with 28.6% of year-to-date sales, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 21.9% market share. In the heavy and extra-heavy commercial vehicle market, Scania retained its position as the leader with 30.7% market share.”
