Retailing 3,086 units, Hilux took overall honours in February as SA’s best-selling vehicle, boosting Toyota’s total sales tally to 10,780 units with a market share of 22,4 per cent. This means that Toyota has once again secured the title of most popular automotive brand in the country.
Commenting on Toyota’s sales performance for the month, Calvyn Hamman, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, said that the Hilux numbers are particularly encouraging: “More than 2,500 units (over 81 per cent) were shifted via the dealer channel which is a very strong indicator of private buyer consumption.
“Ditto when it comes to the Fortuner which completely dominates the large SUV segment – of the 1,092 which found new homes during the month of February, more than 90 per cent were sold to private customers.
“That said, the car rental industry is still making a significant sales contribution and this helped models such as Corolla Quest and Etios each crest the 1,100-sales-mark with rental figures of 516 and 501 units respectively,” Calvyn said.
It was also another exceptional month for RAV4 which is now benefitting from a freer supply flow and, like its Fortuner stablemate, is at the top of its segment (medium SUV) with 612 units retailed in February.
In March, Toyota will have an even more comprehensive range of SUVs when the radical new CH-R will record its first month of sales and according to Calvyn, “this compact crossover will make waves in the marketplace.”
Other notable sales performances came from Corolla with 554 units retailed, Land Cruiser 200 (102 units), Prado (103) and the evergreen Quantum which once again comfortably ticked over with 1,451 units shifted.
Hino achieved a 21.4 per cent share of the MCV market, while the Hino 500 increased its share of the HCV pie to 19.8 per cent.
