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Which used cars South Africans searched for this year

AutoTrader has released its Mid-Year Car Industry Report for 2021, looking at the search habits of South Africans for the first six months of the year. In it, AutoTrader offers insights in terms of the most popular used cars in the country, which models and brands are highly coveted, as well as the rising interest in electric vehicles.

While the extensive report is available to download as a PDF here, we’ve taken a look through and highlighted some of the most interesting and pertinent statistics below.

For example, an all-time record high of over 319 million online vehicle searches were conducted during the first six months of the year, representing growth of 44 percent year-on-year for AutoTrader.

Much of this can be attributed to the pandemic, which has also seen ecommerce flourish during the past 18 months too, while traditional brick-and-mortar establishments have suffered.

Looking at the Demand segment of the report, which lists the top 10 searched for brands, models and variants, it looks like German and Japanese vehicles have dominated over the first half of 2021.

What people are searching for

To that end, the Top 10 searched for brands are:

  1. BMW – 40.45 million
  2. Mercedes-Benz – 38.13 million
  3. Volkswagen – 37.92 million
  4. Toyota – 35.38 million
  5. Audi – 22.64 million
  6. Ford – 20.51 million
  7. Land Rover – 11.65 million
  8. Hyundai – 9.28 million
  9. Nissan – 8.10Volkswagen Golf R  million
  10. Porsche – 7.86 million

 

As for car models, the Top 10 is as follows:

  1. Toyota Hilux – 11.46 million
  2. Volkswagen Golf – 9.55 million
  3. Mercedes-Benz C Class – 9.02 million
  4. BMW 3 Series – 8.28 million
  5. Ford Ranger – 7.52 million
  6. Volkswagen Polo – 6.53 million
  7. BMW 1 Series – 4.86 million
  8. Toyota Fortuner – 4.38 million
  9. BMX X5 – 3.55 million
  10. Audi A3 – 3.2 million

 

Last is variants, which looks at different year models within a specific brand, where VW and BMW feature heavily:

  1. Volkswagen Golf GTI – 1.63 million
  2. Volkswagen Polo GTI – 1.43 million
  3. Mercedes-AMG C Class C63 – 1.40 million
  4. Volkswagen Golf R – 1.19 million
  5. Ford Ranger Wildtrak – 713 071
  6. BMW 3 Series 320d – 605 535
  7. Mercedes-Benz A Class A45 – 575 599
  8. Toyota Hilux 3.0D4D – 488 497
  9. Volkswagen Polo 1.0TSI – 474 943
  10. BMW 1 Series m135i – 469 281

 

Running through the above lists, it appears as if those who own a VW vehicle and are wanting to sell it, will likely have some interest on marketplaces like AutoTrader. Whether you get what you want for it is another question altogether.

The outlook for EVs

One of the other interesting elements that AutoTrader looked at, outside of used cars, was that of electric vehicles (EVs), which despite several hurdles including lack of infrastructure and an unstable power grid, has still seen plenty of searches.

“We’re only in the starting blocks when it comes to EV adoption – in 2020, according to the latest EV Green Paper by the South African government, 92 electric vehicles were sold in the country. But this is set to change! In total, over 285,000 searches for EVs were conducted in the first six months of 2021 on AutoTrader, indicating an increase of over 211% vs the same time a year ago (albeit off a low base). A 234% increase in EV Consumer Advert Views was recorded, dominated by the BMW i3, Porsche Taycan and Jaguar I-Pace,” highlights AutoTrader CEO, George Mienie.

“Bearing in mind the importance of this trend and our belief that the impact of renewable energy on EV uptake needs to be addressed, we have devoted a substantial section of this report to EVs,” he adds.

Diving into said data, while there isn’t a plentiful number of EVs available on the market, a handful of models are garnering serious interest.

To that end the BMW i3 leads the charge with 111 450 searches, followed by the Porsche Taycan and Jaguar I-PACE at 104 452 and 50 240 respectively. The same three models feature among the most viewed EVs on AutoTrader.

The maketplace was also able to share some insights regarding EVs in SA, specifically highlighting some barriers that are hindering adoption, despite interest in the technology from those in the 25 to 24 and 35 to 44 age brackets.

“As mentioned in the previous electric vehicle survey, EVs in South Africa currently attract a 25% import tax vs a 18% tax for Internal Combustion Engine vehicles, this is excluding other taxes such as ad valorem tax. Higher taxes and the lack of incentives has aided in driving the cost of EVs up to an unattainable level for consumers,” the report outlines.

It therefore looks like EVs only stand a chance in South Africa if regulators and government improve infrastructure and incentivise ownership.

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