South Africa's new vehicle market has recorded its best start to a year since 2013, with sales for the first four months of 2026 reaching 209 838 units, 12.5% higher than the 186 599 units sold over the same period in 2025.
The passenger vehicle market performed slightly ahead of the total market, rising 12.8% year on year to 148 723 units between January and April.
April also delivered a strong result despite the usual slowdown caused by public holidays. New vehicle sales for the month reached 47 892 units, up 12.8% on April 2025, though 17.5% lower than March. Passenger vehicle sales climbed 13.7% year on year in April to 34 241 units, while light commercial vehicle sales increased 10.4% to 11 035 units, producing the strongest April performance for light vehicle sales since 2013.
Dealer sales remained the main driver of activity, accounting for 87% of overall new vehicle sales in the first four months of 2026, with the car rental industry making up 9.6% of new passenger car sales, down from 13.4% in 2025.
Lightstone Auto Data analyst Andrew Hibbert says the outlook for 2026 had improved. New vehicle sales for 2026 are now expected to reach around 629 200 units, of which 597 000 are anticipated to be light vehicles, covering both passenger and light commercial models. Overall growth in new vehicle sales is projected to end 2026 at around 5.3%, a marked upward revision from the March projection of 3.4%.
Andrew notes that this would still fall short of the near 16% growth recorded in 2025, but pointed out that last year nonetheless produced the strongest annual sales figures since 2015, the last time domestic sales exceeded 600 000 units. His comments suggest that while the pace of growth is easing from an exceptional 2025, the underlying demand picture for 2026 is stronger than first thought.
Lightstone has also begun tracking South Africa's formal used light vehicle market, estimating dealer network business to consumer sales while excluding private consumer to consumer transactions. This market reached about 284 000 units in the first four months of 2026, almost unchanged from 283 000 units in 2025, meaning 1.7 used vehicles were sold through dealerships for every new vehicle sold so far this year, the lowest ratio for this period in five years.
(Photo: Unsplash)
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Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
George Carlin
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