Volkswagen improves year-on-year sales to remain South Africa’s leading passenger car brand
The Volkswagen brand (Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles) sold a combined 32 603 vehicles in the first six months of 2021.
The Volkswagen Passenger Car brand sold 29 772 units and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles sold a total of 2 881 units. The Volkswagen brand sold 6 824 more vehicles this year when compared to the same period in 2020 which was affected by the hard lockdown in April. The Volkswagen brand leads the South African passenger car market with a market share of 24.4%.
“The automotive industry has been severely affected by the worldwide shortage of semi-conductor chips and vehicle transportation related challenges this year, so to have increased our sales from last year is a remarkable achievement. I would like to commend the Volkswagen Dealer Network which accounted for over 70% of our sales in the first six months of 2021,”
said Steffen Knapp, Head of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars.
The locally-manufactured Polo Vivo is South Africa’s best-selling passenger car with 11 560 units sold in the first six months of the year. The Polo, also manufactured at Volkswagen’s plant in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) and exported to international markets, is the second best-selling passenger car in South Africa with 9 045 units sold in the same period.
“The Volkswagen T SUV model range which consists of the T-Cross, T-Roc, Tiguan, Tiguan Allspace and the Touareg, continues to perform well in the local market with 6 609 units sold in the first half of the year. The T-Cross, is the top-selling model in the A0 SUV segment and also our best-selling imported derivative with 3 893 units sold in the first six months of this year, amounting for over half of our SUV sales,”
concluded Knapp.
South Africa’s most powerful double cab bakkie, the Amarok, is the best-selling model for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles this year with 908 units sold in the first six months of 2021. The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles T6.1 model range sold a combined 823 units in the first half of the year.
The Volkswagen vehicle portfolio in South Africa will be bolstered by new model introductions in the second half of the year. The new Tiguan was recently launched into the local market. Retail of the Golf 8 GTI, which is Volkswagen’s most anticipated launch this year, will commence in September. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles will be introducing the new generation Caddy in October.
