Imperial's AMH with Hyundai and Kia are a new force.
JOHANNESBURG - Toyota, for years king of the SA motor industry, has lost a fifth of its market share in passenger cars in the past three years.
The chart supplied at Moneyweb's request by research house Response Group Trendline shows Toyota's passenger market share - the dark purple bar - declining from 23% for all of 2008 to 20% for the full year of 2009 - and now to a low of 18% for the first six months of 2010.
Toyota's marketing chief Andrew Kirby denied that Toyota's recalls and global chairman Toyoda's humiliating apology to the US Senate has undermined the hitherto-believable jingle: "Everything keeps going right, Toyota." "There is no indication of that. Our numbers are slightly different from RGT's but the trend is the same. We had 21% of the market in 2008, 17.7% in 2009 and 15% in the first six months of this year." Kirby ascribes the loss to heavy competition in a depressed market, to Toyota's absence from the sub-B (cheap) car category and some ageing of some of Toyota's biggest brands. He said the average list price of the Toyota passenger offering was R250 000 - well above most rivals. "We probably won't get back to 25% market share. There are just more competitors today but we have aggressive plans and new models to get back on top." Of course Kirby reckons Toyota is still number one as a brand. He thinks Audi is a distinct brand from VW and should therefore not be incorporated in VWSA's total. RSG analyst Andrew Hibbert said: "The most notable area of market share decline for Toyota has been in the entry and small car segments, where the number of competitors to the Toyota Yaris has increased.
"Examples of the vehicles in this group which have increased their market share over the last couple of years, at the expense primarily of Toyota, are the Ford Fiesta, the Ford Ikon, the Mazda 2, the Renault Sandero, the Suzuki Swift.and lately VW's Polo Vivo." Volkswagen has ruled the passenger car roost since starting to shade Toyota in 2006. Thanks to the success of its bottom-of-the-range Polo Vivo, which replaced its popular Citigolf, its market share in the first six months of 2010 has soared to 25% from 22.5% a year ago. Thanks to its commercials, bakkies and trucks - not to mention surging exports -Toyota remains the biggest player in the total vehicle market.
Associated Motor Holdings, which is part of Imperial Group, (royal blue in the chart) shows the most dramatic growth, with its share of the market up from 11% for the full year of 2008 to 19% in the past six months. According to AMH CEO Manny de Canha, Hyundai and Kia have been his big stars. He says Hyundai received a direct injection thanks to its sponsorship of the Fifa World Cup. Fifa bought 800 Hyandai cars. De Canha says the Kia I20, I10 and I30 in the R110 000 to R160 000 price bracket excelled. The IX35, a new soft road contender aimed at Toyota's RAV 4 and Nissan's XTrail, is also promising, he says. De Canha said unlike most global competitors, the Koreans kept developing new models during the great slump. Other Imperial brands, such as Renault, Daihatsu and Terios are also doing well.
De Canha also credits Hyundai's 5-year, 150 000 km warrant in lieu of a price cut for some of its success. Alone among major distributors, AMH refuses to provide sales volumes by brand. In the depths of market gloom in the six months to December Imperial's distributorships contributed R380m of operating profit - up 108% and its dealerships R169m up 12%. In a recent trading statement Imperial forecast heps growth of 25%-40% in the year to June. It said: "Growth in vehicle sales and the benefit of restructuring the automotive businesses last year positively affected both our vehicle trading divisions. The distributorships division also benefits from the prevailing currency conditions.
BMW has also done well, raising market share to 11% from 7% in 2007. Mercedes-Benz grew its share from 9% in 2008 to 11% in the most recent six months. The market share graph reflects units sold. When it comes to turnover in rands, Mercedes and BMW, with higher market prices, would be appreciably bigger. Ford grew from 7% in 2007 to 9% in 2008 but recently fell back to 8.5%. Its big rival, General Motors, has also been a victim of intense competition. Its share of the market fell to just over 6% from 9% in 2007. RGT is part of RGTSmart (JSE:RGT) which listed on the JSE (JSE:JSE) recently.