Toyota has kick-started 2017 with an encouraging result – the market leader’s new vehicle sales tally for January was 12,252 units, close to 3,800 units ahead of its nearest competitor. Even more significant is that this represents a record-breaking 24,3 per cent market share. This means that one in every four new vehicles that found homes at the beginning of this year, was a Toyota or its affiliate brand.
Toyota’s best-selling vehicle was the Hilux, confidently shifting 2,398 units for the month. And as Calvyn Hamman, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, points out, “what’s really telling is that 2,164 of these Hilux sales were via the dealer channel – higher throughput than any other model sold in SA.”
“We’re also very pleased with the Etios and Corolla Quest numbers – with sales of 2,302 and 2,221 respectively on the back of a good rental month, these models comfortably claimed the third and fourth spot on the passenger car sales podium. In fact, Toyota takes pole position not only in the passenger car segment but LCV as well,” Calvyn said.
Toyota’s sales leadership in January once again reflects the popularity of the company’s SUV range with sizeable contributions coming from the segment-leading Fortuner (by far the highest-selling SUV in SA) which retailed 1,233 units and the RAV4, which had a similarly good showing with 689 units sold.
Calvyn attributes this to satisfying ‘pent-up demand’ for this popular imported model now that supply constraints have eased.
Premium Toyota SUVs registering on the sales radar are the Land Cruiser 200 (150) and the Prado which racked up 106 sales for the month.
Other notable contributors from the Toyota stable include the evergreen Quantum (1,192), Avanza which leads the MPV race with 611 sales and the Land Cruiser Pick-up which notched up 286 unit sales, making it the front runner in the speciality light commercial vehicle segment.
On the medium commercial vehicle front, the Toyota Dyna and Hino 300 achieved a market share in excess of 20 per cent.
“In the light of the first month’s sales, I’m cautiously optimistic about the 2017 sales trend. We’ve really been trying hard to listen to the voice of the customer and it’s so encouraging when this is rewarded with good sales,” Calvyn concluded.
