By Otsile Kadiege

During the first three months of 2021, Volkswagen South Africa sold and impressive 17,000 vehicles – 15,505 were passenger cars and 1,505 were commercial vehicles.

Volkswagen leads the passenger car market with a share of 20.6%. The best sales month for the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand was February 2,021 where 5,497 vehicles were sold. The Volkswagen Polo Vivo is still the country’s best-selling passenger car with total sales of 6,643 in the first quarter; an average of 2,200 sales a month.

Polo magic

The German automaker also exported a whooping 26,630 units of their popular Polo to international markets in the first quarter of 2021. The T-Cross is now South Africa’s best-selling compact SUV after selling 2,325 units in the first three months of 2021.

“The South African automotive industry has started to recover from the effects of the hard lockdown in March last year which halted production and sales of vehicles. As Volkswagen we are pleased to have defended our leadership of the passenger car market in the first quarter of this year. Our performance was boosted by strong dealer sales as well as sales to government and rental markets with the latter posting 3 408 units in the first three months of this year,” said Steffen Knapp, head of the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand in South Africa.

Commercial vehicles

The Commercial Vehicles brand increased sales by 9.6% to 1,505 units year-on-year. The best sales month for the brand was March 2021, with 629 units sold. The Amarok double cab bakkie was the best-selling derivative for the brand with 567 units sold in the first three months of 2021. The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand will also introduce the fifth generation of the best-selling Caddy in the local market, from the third quarter of this year.

New Tiguan and Golf GTI

2021 is a momentous year for the Volkswagen brand. Not only will Volkswagen’s T SUV model range be bolstered with the launch of the new Tiguan in the middle of the year and the Tiguan Allspace in the third quarter, the highly anticipated Golf 8 GTI will also be launched in the South African market from the second quarter of 2021.