7 biggest vehicle-exporters from South Africa in August 2018

VW Group SA moved up a spot after exporting 5 268 units of the Polo in August.

For August 2018, Naamsa said that while South Africa’s domestic sales figures were “disappointing”, export sales had recorded a welcome improvement.

August 2018 aggregate export sales at 32 247 vehicles reflected an improvement of 2 317 units or a gain of 7,7% compared with the 29 930 vehicles exported in August last year. So, let’s take a look at which automakers were the biggest exporters from South Africa for the month.

Mercedes-Benz enjoyed a particularly strong month, remaining in first place and exporting 10 048 examples of its C-Class from the East London plant. Ford again had to settle for second spot, shipping off 6 744 units (comprising 6 726 units of the Ranger and 18 units of the Everest) from its Silverton facility in the month.

The BMW Group likewise held steady in third, with its Rosslyn plant churning out 5 532 examples of the X3 for foreign markets. The Volkswagen Group moved up one place to fourth, exporting 5 268 examples of the Polo hatchback from Uitenhage.

Toyota thus fell one to fifth with an export figure of 3 582, including 3 391 examples of its Hilux, 111 units of the Fortuner and 71 vehicles from its Corolla/Quest line (all built at its Prospecton factory), plus seven examples of Hino trucks.

Nissan added 465 (made up of 424 Hardbody units, 19 NP200s and 22 NP300s) to place sixth, while Isuzu managed 422 (including 399 examples of the KB bakkie, 20 units of the MU-X and three trucks) to again take seventh.

For reference, see July 2018’s list here…