Biggest vehicle-exporters from SA in December 2018...

The Ford Ranger enjoyed a particularly strong export month in December 2018.

For December 2018, Naamsa said South Africa’s export vehicle sales had recorded “a massive improvement”. Indeed, the month’s aggregate export vehicle sales came in at 31 437 units, reflecting an increase of 11 330 vehicles or a considerable gain of 56,3% compared with the figure achieved in December 2017.

So, let’s take a look at which automakers were the biggest exporters from South Africa for the month.

Mercedes-Benz just about remained in first place, exporting 9 277 units (up 971, month on month) from its East London plant (9 276 of which were C-Class models). Ford, meanwhile, climbed two places to second, shipping off a whopping 9 209 units (comprising 9 160 units of the Ranger and 49 of the Everest) from its Silverton facility in the month. This represents a substantial increase of 2 947 units, month on month.

Toyota moved up two places to third with an export figure of 5 402, including 5 222 examples of its Hilux, 109 units of the Fortuner and 71 vehicles from its Corolla/Quest line (all built at its Prospecton factory). This total is up 1 750 units on the Japanese firm’s effort in November.

The BMW Group thus fell one to fourth, with its Rosslyn plant churning out 3 648 examples of the X3 for foreign markets, representing a considerable fall of 3 559 units compared with the preceding month.

The Volkswagen Group, meanwhile, fell three places to fifth, exporting 3 223 examples (down a whopping 4 729 units) of its Polo hatchback from Uitenhage. Nissan dropped by 66 units to 402 (made up of 371 Hardbody units and 31 NP200s) to remain in sixth, while Isuzu fell by 255 units to total just 141 (including 18 examples of the KB bakkie, 122 wearing the D-Max badge and one MU-X) to again take seventh.

For reference, see November 2018’s list here…