Toyota car sales accelerate

Toyota continues to cement its 31-year supremacy of the local car industry, selling more than almost every other brand.

For every Fiat bought last month, more than 24 people drove a new Toyota home.

For every Tata bought, more than 20 Toyotas were purchased; for every Renault there were 12 Toyotas and for every Honda more than 11 Toyotas.

But the Japanese car manufacturer still has a fight on its hands with Volkswagen, which last year held top position for four months.

New car sales grew 6.4% in February from a year ago, according to figures released by Naamsa (the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa) on Friday.

This was the lowest increase in nine months, due to slower growth in passenger car sales - of 6.8% year on year from 7.4% the previous month.

Jeffrey Schultz, Absa Capital's macro-economist, said monthly sales of passenger cars are still about 7500 units shy of their sales peak in mid-2006.

New vehicle export growth was 10% down in February from the previous year, coming off a high base and reflecting some slowdown in key trading partners, particularly Europe.

But Naamsa is upbeat about exports.

Major investment has taken place in some large vehicle export programmes, such as that at BMW, which will "ramp up" volumes in the coming months.

Naamsa projects that this year's export growth will be about 10%.

Norman Lamprecht, executive manager of Naamsa, has said that the industry expects exports to exceed a record 300000 cars for the first time this year.