Coronavirus cripples motor sales targets for 2020

It may not be the halfway mark that Toyota – or even the local auto industry and local economy, for that matter – had envisaged for 2020, but vehicle sales for the month of June have sparked some hope in the automotive sector.

Local sales were already under pressure, due to a shrinking economy, when the country went into a hard lockdown at the end of March – halting retail in the industry for two months.

According to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM), Leon Theron: “The impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown have left Toyota approximately 24 percent short of where we would have like to be on our annual sales plan. This has mainly been driven by the intermission in car rental space, compounded by restricted trade during lockdown and dwindling consumer confidence.

“Although we expected challenges in our first month out of full lockdown, we can see that the pro-active preparation by our dealerships has given us the edge in achieving more than we initially expected. We do however remain cautiously optimistic as to what July, and the rest of the year, may offer the industry as the situation remains capricious due to the increase in Covid-19 cases across the country.”

At 31 876, domestic sales for June have contracted by a substantial 30.7 percent compared to the same month last year when 45 953 vehicles were sold.

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) says out of the total domestic sales for June, an estimated 29 100 units or 91.3 percent represented dealer sales, 4.6 percent sales to government, 3.7 percent to industry corporate fleets, while an estimated 0.4 percent presented sales to the vehicle rental industry.

That said, TSAM still managed a creditable retail total of 8 442 units for the month of June, with a 26.5 percent market share.

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