New vehicle sales in line with Wesbank's 2018 forecast

At the start of the year WesBank released its new vehicle sales prediction of 0.75% growth for the total industry. When comparing its projection with data released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) for the first half of the year, WesBank is comfortable with new vehicle sales performance tracking only 5% behind its forecast.
“Historical trends have shown that sales in the second half of a calendar year are generally higher than the first,” said Ghana Msibi, WesBank’s Executive Head for Sales and Marketing. “Consumers are generally more cautious with big ticket purchases early in the year, often because of lingering December spending hangovers. Shorter months and fewer working days due to public holidays over the first six months also contribute to less sales activity.”
Naamsa’s data shows year on year growth of 2.6% in the dealer channel (from 35 489 units to 36 428), which is on par with WesBank’s prediction of 3% for 2018. Although year on year recovery has been seen in rental sales, which are up 13% (4 553 units to 5 124), year to date sales remain subdued (-12.4%) – also in line with WesBank’s overall projection of -14.9% from 2017’s high base.
“To realise our 0.75% industry growth prediction, and possibly beyond, is entirely possible during the second half of 2018,” Msibi concluded.