Indian car sales struggle in South Africa market

Indian vehicle manufacturers saw their market share of the total South African new vehicle market drop below one per cent in September, despite the month being a buoyant one for most manufacturers.

New vehicle sales statistics for September, released on Tuesday, showed combined sales from Tata and Mahindra totalled 541 units (or 0.995 per cent) of the 54,364 units sold in the month.

The month before, Tata and Mahindra sold a combined 570 units, a sales drop of five per cent on a month-on-month basis, when the rest of the SA new vehicle market showed a six per cent month-on-month increase.

Tata's monthly sales of 386 in September were only marginally down on August's 389, but Mahindra registered a more marked slowdown, slipping from 181 units in August to 155

units in September.

Tata's showing in the passenger vehicle market, where the company enjoyed a strong showing five years earlier, remained weak, with just 146 passenger vehicles sold in September.

Focusing largely on affordable entry-level vehicles, it was outsold by Fiat (259 units), Peugeot (212), Mini (209), Citroen (207), Dodge (168) and Mitsubishi (153).

It fared relatively better in the heavy commercial vehicle segment, where it sold 41 units, nearly 10 per cent of September sales in this low volume market.

Mahindra outsold Tata in the light commercial vehicle market in September, with unit sales of 120 and 112, respectively.

Mahindra also got almost seven per cent of the medium commercial vehicle market.