Publications
A lot is going on in South Africa, and things seem more chaotic than they've been in a while. However, bakkies are still selling like there's no tomorrow.
Stage Six load shedding, Gauteng still battling water issues, SA Tourism wants to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur, and there's a wild cat on the loose every now and then. Nevertheless, if one thing stays the same and is consistently winning in South Africa, it's our bakkie sales. And, it's always the most exciting talking point around a braai.
Toyota is still the best-selling automaker, both in the passenger segment and light commercial vehicles. There's very little evidence that any other carmaker comes close to their domination in the local market. Toyota sold a total of 12 532 vehicles in January, with 4 674 attributed to the light commercial vehicle segment. Of those, 2 769 accounted for new Hilux bakkies, excluding the 6 595 units that were exported. The firm also sold 468 LandCruiser pickup trucks. Needless to say, Toyota is on a mega roll once more.
Isuzu is still selling high volumes of its new 2022-launched D-Max model, bringing in 1 273 sales, pipping the Blue Oval brand by just four models.
Ford just launched its new next-generation Ranger bakkie in December. While most of the figures we saw in last month's reports were a mix of the previous generation and new models, Ford says the sales number for January is only brand-new models, all 1 269 units thereof. It will be interesting to see if Ford will overtake Isuzu since the D-Max has become so highly favourable again.
DRIVEN | Has Ford finally delivered a real threat to Toyota's Hilux? We drive the new Ranger bakkie
Nissan sold 886 units of its popular NP200 half-tonner and 351 Navara bakkies, while Mahindra came in with 819 Scorpio pickups and 47 Bolero models.
Haval Motors sold 373 bakkies in January; 286 GWM P-Series and 87 GWM Steed models.
JAC Motors sold 87 units for the month, 55 X-Series and 32 T-Series, while Mitsubishi moved 65 Tritons - I still reckon this as one of the most underrated bakkies in South Africa and one of the most fuel-efficient ones too.
Volkswagen sold 51 Amarok bakkies, while it needs to be noted the next-generation model will be launched in the next couple of months. It will be interesting to see how the new bakkie will perform in our local market.
The Stellantis Group sold 32 Jeep Rubicon Gladiator pickup trucks priced from R1.3-million while their Peugeot brand sold 19 Landtrek models.
READ | 3 new bakkies that cost less than R10 000 per month (and they come with everything)
Mazda sold seven beautiful BT-50 bakkies, and Mercedes-Benz sold the same number of their existing stock of what we can only imagine is the X-Class.
Special mention: Hyundai sold 177 H100 trucks, and Suzuki moved 144 Super Carry models off dealer floors in January, and Kia sold 85 K2700 units.
