
SA Auto Week to take place in Eastern Cape during October
Despite potential headwinds, South Africa’s automotive industry remains committed to long-term growth and resilience.
- Industry News
- 2 April 2025
The intent of consumers to purchase a new vehicle has increased in the past two months, according to the latest consumer Vehicle Purchase Intent (VPI) index compiled by Deloitte.
The VPI revealed that the index increased from 92.33 on a 100-point scale in April this year to 95.82 in May and still further to 95.82 in June 2022.
This followed the VPI deteriorating from 102.21 in February this year to 87.10 on March 30, 2022.
Dr Martyn Davies, the Africa Automotive Industry Leader at Deloitte, said 23% of respondents cited “new vehicles on market have features I want now” as their top driver for future vehicle purchase intent.
The other significant drivers of future vehicle purchase intent highlighted by Deloitte are:
The Deloitte VPI index is a monthly proprietary measure of forward vehicle demand intent calculated and based on the percentage of consumers who indicate they are planning to acquire a vehicle in the next six months.
Deloitte listed a number of key factors influencing the VPI trend, both positively and negatively.
The firm said the positive trends were:
The negative trends were:
In terms of the concerns of consumers about their financial capacity going forward:
Deloitte said there were a number of key behaviours that were impacting mobility.
It said the average daily driving distance declined to 48 km but the percentage of consumers planning to drive more going forward increased to 24%.
However, the percentage of consumers who plan to use public transport more going forward remained static at 15% while the number of days of the week people were working from home declined to 2.8 days.
Despite potential headwinds, South Africa’s automotive industry remains committed to long-term growth and resilience.
South African consumers demonstrated a strong appetite for new passenger vehicles in March, according to figures released by the Automotive Business Council (naamsa).
Just a few days after its official introduction to the South African market, the TopGear SA team, in a convoy of Nissan Navara Warriors, has embarked on a record-breaking expedition into South Africa’s most extreme hinterland.