New vehicles sales rebounded in July growing 4.1% year-on-year.
According to the latest sales figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, aggregate new vehicle sales amounted 46 719 units.
Year-to-date total industry sales were now down just 0.3%, according to a statement from Wesbank, in response to the latest data.
“The most notable positive performance was in the passenger car segment, which represents two thirds of total sales volumes. Total passenger car sales grew 6.2%, and passenger car sales through the dealer channel were up 4%, compared to July 2016,” it said.
“Growth of 10.6% was seen in total sales to the rental channel while sales through the government channel skyrocketed 152.5%, year-on-year.”
“July’s sales performance can be attributed to positive changes in the underlying fundamentals in the market,” said Rudolf Mahoney, Head of Brand and Communications at WesBank.
“We see this in our data, where the demand for new vehicle finance is up 9% this past month.”
Mahoney said that household debt levels “have steadily declined over the last 24 months and currently sit at 72%.”
“This figure measures the percentage of income consumers use to service their debt. At the same time, there has been a marginal rise in the amount of disposable incomes households have. Additionally, headline inflation and new vehicle price inflation have declined, following a strong performance by the Rand,” he said.
Mahoney said that vehicle manufacturers have also taken advantage of the performance of the currency to directly pass value to consumers. “This is seen in the number of attractive marketing incentives on offer to buyers in the new vehicle market,” he said.
