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
Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) kicked off 2022 with 12 480 sales in January. With this, TSAM matched its pre-COVID-19 figures in the first month of the year.
The TSAM aggregate accounts for a remarkable market share of 30.2% out of the 41 382 total units sold in South Africa in January. In other words, for every ten vehicles sold last month, three of them were either Toyota-, Lexus- or Hino-branded models.
Interestingly, Toyota also topped the sales charts in both the passenger (7 946) and light commercial vehicle (4 366) segments.
Retailing 2 803 units, Hilux took overall honours in January as SA and Toyota’s best-selling vehicle, while the HiAce Ses’fikile continued its sales prowess as the country’s favourite people mover with 1 076 units sold.
In the passenger category, the Urban Cruiser secured the title of most popular SUV with total sales of 1 454. Other notable performances in the segment included the Starlet (1 472), Corolla Cross (1 356), Agya (888), Corolla Quest (741) and Fortuner (707).
On the luxury front, the Land Cruiser 300 and Prado posted 249 and 164 units respectively, while the more niche Lexus variants garnered a total of 53 sales.
Toyota’s truck division, Hino, sold a total of 134 vehicles in January. The Hino 500-Series registered sales of 57 trucks, while the 300-Series sold a total of 46 units.
Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at TSAM, Leon Theron, says the company’s marketing strategy is not just limited to new vehicle sales leadership. He therefore commended TSAM’s parts distribution division for shipping no fewer than 1.4 million vehicle parts locally while over 357 000 pieces were shipped across our borders in January.
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.