INSIDE YOUR POCKET - Vehicle sales growing, but storm clouds loom, warns TransUnion

GUEST – Kriben Reddy - Vice president of Auto Information Solutions at TransUnion Africa)<br /> <br /> South Africa’s automotive industry shrugged off ongoing vehicle price inflation, declining consumer credit health and looming macro-economic storm clouds to record an increase in vehicle sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 – but all indicators suggest a tough year ahead.<br /> <br /> This is according to the latest findings from TransUnion’s Q4 2022 Vehicle Pricing Index (VPI), that showed that the new vehicle index jumped from 2% in Q4 2021 to 7% in Q4 2022, with used vehicles moving from 7% to 9.1% in the same period. The findings show that:<br /> <br /> • The number of financial agreements in the passenger vehicle market in Q4 increased by 1.5% year-on-year, with new vehicle deals surging by 13% and used vehicle deals decreasing by 3.4%<br /> <br /> • A year ago, 2.31 used vehicles were sold for every new vehicle; in Q4 2022, this declined to 1.98. In the used vehicle market, 20% of cars sold were less than two years old<br /> <br /> • Demo models financed made up to 4% of used financed deals, which indicates consumers are opting for older vehicles wherever possible, while car prices and pressure on disposable income increase<br /> <br /> • The number of purchasers for hybrid and electric models grew 10 times for hybrids and six times for electric in 2022<br /> <br /> • Consumers between the ages of 26 and 40 bought nearly 46% of all vehicles financed, of which 73% were used <a href="http://www.kayafm.co.za/">Kaya FM </a>