10 best-selling bakkies in South Africa: August 2023

In HotWheels
September 4, 2023
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Bakkie fans, the sales figures are in! Here’s your monthly look at South Africa’s best- and worst-selling bakkies for August 2023…

In August 2023, South Africa’s new-vehicle industry registered a 3.1% year-on-year decline to finish on 45 679 units. Despite this fall, the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) segment saw marginal growth, with registrations here ending on 13 652 units (or 2.7% up compared with the corresponding month in 2022).

So, what happened on the list of South Africa’s best-selling bakkies? Well, for the 2nd month running, there were no changes in position inside the top 10. That meant the locally built Toyota Hilux – which is due to go the mild-hybrid route at some point in 2024 – was again top of the charts in August 2023, though the Japanese bakkie this time managed to cross the 3 000-unit barrier to finish on a heady 3 309 units.

The Silverton-manufactured Ford Ranger likewise gained a few hundred registrations month on month, retaining 2nd place with 2 367 units (or a whopping 86.9% of total Blue Oval sales for August). The Struandale-made Isuzu D-Max (1 632 units) completed the podium. Interestingly, the Japanese firm reportedly plans to launch a fully electric bakkie based on the D-Max in certain markets by 2025.

While Nissan has confirmed the NP200 will go out of production in the opening quarter of 2024, sales of the half-tonne bakkie continue unabated, with the Rosslyn-produced model holding on to 4th position with 1 064 registrations. The locally assembled Mahindra Pik Up (701 units), imported GWM P-Series (567 units) and Rosslyn-built Nissan Navara (481 units) remained in 5th, 6th and 7th, respectively.

The final 3 spots in the top 10 thus again went to the evergreen Toyota Land Cruiser 79 (305 units), the Ford-built Volkswagen Amarok (296 units) and the Chinese-made GWM Steed (83 units).

Best of the rest in August 2023: bakkies outside the top 10

So, what about those bakkies that didn’t manage to break into the top 10 in August 2023? Well, the outgoing Mitsubishi Triton (78 units) was once again the best of the rest, followed by JAC’s T-badged bakkies (the Chinese automaker unfortunately reports only a combined figure for its T6 and recently updated T8 line-ups) with 57 units.

As we pointed out last time, Mahindra SA has quietly rationalised the local Bolero line-up to just a single variant, so the Indian-built bakkie had to settle for only 22 registrations in August 2023. Meanwhile, the Peugeot Landtrek (8 units), Jeep Gladiator (6 units) and Mazda BT-50 (4 units) didn’t manage to crack double figures.

Export winners in the bakkie segment in August 2023

What about the export market? Well, the Silverton-built Ford Ranger (7 166 units, not including VW Amarok units, according to the Blue Oval brand) again finished just ahead of the Prospecton-produced Toyota Hilux (6 863 units) in the export race.

The D-Max (655 units), Navara (208 units) and NP200 (45 units) therefore again made up the numbers on the export charts. As has been the case for several months now, the official Naamsa report furthermore showed a few imported models being exported from local shores in August 2023, this time in the form of the GWM P-Series (37 units), Mitsubishi Triton (33 units) and GWM Steed (1 unit).