South African Car Dealerships saw growth in vehicle sales in the year 2023. While the consumers battled higher borrowing costs of dwindling incomes.
Recently, the data on the deals made was released by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) last week. According to the data, 532,098 vehicles were sold in 2023 and reported a slight increase of 529,556 that was sold in the year 2022.
Notably, the association recorded that the sales kept up with 2022 despite the industry recording a slowdown in sales volumes in the second half of the year.
December saw sales of 40,329 units and marked the industry’s fifth consecutive month of year-on-year decline.
The Chairman of NADA – Brandon Cohen, made a statement that the overall South African vehicle market managed to show some growth in the year 2023.
He stated that the growth seemed out of reach as the market declined in the second half of the year. “This is a good psychological boost for the industry as we enter 2024,” added the Chairman.
Chairman Cohen expressed that even with the muted performance, local manufacturers still had hope as exports reached high records of 396,290 units, growing 12.7 per cent from the 2022 period.
NADA admitted that the industry is not out of the woods yet and will need to be resilient in the face of high interest rates and inflationary pressures that may continue to restrain performance.
As per the sources, last year, the dealers had to cope with tough market conditions overall. Arguably, that was the toughest since 2007 or even 1998 in terms of economic pressure on consumers.
The NADA Chairman Brandon Cohen added to his statement that it would lead to some overstocking, placing importers, distributors and manufacturers under significant pressure to facilitate stock movement.
“Consequently, efforts were made to enhance market activity through year-end incentives, ensuring sustained sales momentum,” said Cohen.