October 2020

Quarter 3 overview

In this edition of Auto Insights, we provide a 6-month rolling view (March 2020 – August 2020) of new vehicle sales with particular emphasis on a detailed breakdown of the Passenger and Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) channels.

We explore how South African new vehicle sales trends compare with key international markets. Tracking finance house applications, approvals and successfully concluded finance deals provide insight into both consumer and finance house appetites.  

Dealer market activity, analysed by drilling down into LIVE vehicle scans, delivers a holistic view on current market trends. Lastly, the Lightstone Confidence Indicator shares feedback from the automotive market pertaining to current and future expected activity levels.

New vehicle sales almost halved during lockdown... 

In August 2020 NAAMSA reported an aggregated new vehicle sales total of
33 292 units (of which 91.1% represents dealer sales) - marginally up on overall new vehicle sales of 32 330 units in July 2020.

Passenger vehicle sales declined by 33.2% year-on-year to 19 368 units, and Light Commercial Vehicles sales were...

The distances travelled by approximately 650,000 vehicles crashed to 19% of 2019 levels within days of the hard lockdown being imposed in March 2020 as South Africans heeded the call to “stay at home”...

Lightstone is launching affordable, new solutions which will be integrated with Signio. They include Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions with two options to choose from – StayContactable and Curata – and Digital Signing Solutions (DSS) which...

Market activity in vehicle valuations and verifications provides further evidence there is a recovery in vehicle sales and trade-ins as the lockdown levels are eased.

Lightstone has seen a strong correlation between number of scans of vehicle licence disks using the LIVE product and vehicles sales for the same period.

Live transactions through Signio were at a 2020 high in...

The impact of the lockdown is becoming increasingly evident as economic activity resumes, but Lightstone’s Motor Industry Confidence Indicator in August suggests respondents are confident the situation will continue to improve in the months ahead.

Activity in the automotive industry declined slightly again in August (4.9) from July’s 5.0, which was a slight decline from June, the busiest month since the lockdown was introduced in late March.

Overall market activity is measured on...

A resilient auto industry is preparing to fight back in modern ways

Motor body repair shops taking strain

The fastest way to get your business back on track

IBIS AFRICA 2020 

Lightstone offers MyEcho to their MBR participants

These are the most popular car colours in SA and the UK

Why SA rush-hour traffic may never return to pre-pandemic levels

South Africa’s double-cab bakkie sales race: Stats after August 2020

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