Two Chinese brands shaking up South Africa’s motoring industry

Two Chinese carmakers — GWM-owned Haval and Chery — have proved immensely popular with South African motorists. In September 2024, the pair sold the seventh-most and eighth-most vehicles in the country, respectively.

While Haval has been in the country since 2017, Chery is a far more recent entrant to South Africa.

It launched locally in August 2021 and has since climbed the sales charts to beat several prominent and established brands in the country.

While many South Africans have been tentative about buying Chinese-made vehicles, they typically offer high value for money, are well-equipped with tech, and compete well in the affordable car segment.

According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa’s (Naamsa) sales data for September 2024, Chery ranked eighth in the country in terms of sales volume, selling 1,614 cars and beating 18 other brands.

These include names like Renault, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Honda, and Volvo.

It wasn’t far behind GWM, which ranked seventh and sold 1,740 vehicles in the month. Naamsa’s local car sales ranking for all 26 brands sold in South Africa is shown below:

1. Toyota — 10,890 units
2. VW — 5,885 units
3. Suzuki — 5,032 units
4. Hyundai — 2,841 units
5. Ford — 2,823 units
6. Isuzu — 1,960 units
7. GWM SA — 1,740 units
8. Chery — 1,614 units
9. Renault — 1,426 units
10. Nissan — 1,425 units
11. Kia — 1,284 units
12. Mahindra — 1,014 units
13. BMW — 961 units
14. Mercedes-Benz — 535 units
15. Omoda and Jaecoo — 506 units
16. Stellantis — 505 units
17. Jaguar Land Rover — 312 units
18. Honda — 265 units
19. BAIC — 207 units
20. Mazda — 204 units
21. Mitsubishi — 175 units
22. JAC — 142 units
23. Porsche — 97 units
24. Volvo — 83 units
25. Proton — 68 units
26. Subaru — 22 units

Chery’s sales growth has been quite rapid. The company revealed that it sold twice as many vehicles in 2023 as in 2022: 16,110 vehicles in 2023, up from 8,013 the year before.

In a statement from January 2024, it said it had climbed the ranks to be the second-best-selling SUV brand in the country.

“If you consider that Chery only sells SUVs, our doubling of sales and overall ranking is very impressive because we do not sell any commercial vehicles or entry-level cars to bolster our sales numbers,” said Deputy General Manager of Chery South Africa, Tony Liu.

Haval has also seen its sales grow significantly in South Africa. The GWM-owned brand sold just 872 cars in the country in 2019, just under eighteen months after it launched locally.

Naamsa data shows that Haval had sold nearly 20,000 by mid-2024.

The market for Chinese vehicles, in general, appears to be growing rapidly in South Africa.

Standard Bank recently reported that the proportion of used Chinese cars financed by the bank had grown from 20% in 2022 to 36% by July 2024.

MyBroadband tracked Naamsa car sales data on a half-yearly basis from September 2021 to September 2024, its most recent sales stats. Rankings over the period are shown in the table below.