Chery names its first bakkie Grootman
Chery has named its first bakkie for South Africa Grootman, a name chosen by South Africans. The model is planned to make its local debut in the first quarter of 2027.
- Product News
- 2 October 2026
Suzuki Auto South Africa broke virtually every single sales record in one month with huge sales success in January.
naamsa, the automotive industry business council, reported on Monday that Suzuki Auto South Africa was the third best-selling vehicle manufacturer in January, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.
This is on a par with the highest rank ever achieved by Suzuki and the highest overall sales – 3 232 vehicles – for the company. Equally impressive, notes the naamsa statistics, is that the dealer network sold 2 551 of these units, their highest sales figure ever.
“A couple of new dealers joined the Suzuki family in January. This grew our network to 78 dealers,” says Henno Havenga, Manager of Auto Dealer Sales at Suzuki Auto South Africa.
“And what a fitting welcome to our new dealers to see their peers outperform all previous sales records. In fact, our top five dealers sold a combined 530 new Suzuki models in January and 20 dealers, from Klerksdorp to Gqeberha, each sold more than 50 units in the month.”
While Suzuki’s dealer network deserves a lot of the credit for helping to push the brand’s sales into previously unheard-of territory, the corporate and fleet sales team also outperformed all expectations. In January, this division sold 681 vehicles to corporate, fleet and government customers.
In its review of the national sales figures, naamsa notes that the industry is gradually recovering from its COVID-19-related slump and that domestic sales grew by 19.5% compared to January 2021. In contrast, Suzuki jumped by more than 73% when compared to January 2021.
A total of 1 069 Suzuki Swift and Swift Sport models were sold in January, while six other models, including the S-Presso, Jimny, Super Carry, Dzire and Baleno, recorded triple digit sales.
South Africa’s new vehicle market recorded aggregate domestic sales of 61 645 units in September 2026, an increase of 12.7% compared with the 54 706 units sold during September 2025.
SA Auto Week 2026 is scheduled to take place in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, from 13 to 16 October, with the event marking five years of SA Auto Week.
South Africa’s domestic new-vehicle market strengthened in September, recording 61 645 sales, its highest monthly total of 2026. Sales increased by 3 747 vehicles, or 6.5%, from August’s originally reported total and were 12.7% higher than in September 2025.