The surge seen in Chinese vehicle sales is not unique to South Africa, says Motus CEO Ockert Janse van Rensburg.

The parts and vehicle retailer and distributor also operates in the UK and Australia.

Janse van Rensburg says Chinese brands grew from a 2.1% share of total sales in South Africa in 2019, to 15.2% in 2025.

In the UK, Chinese-vehicle market share increased from 0.5% in 2019, to 9.4% in 2025, and, in Australia, sales expanded from 1.7% in 2019, to 17% of the market last year.

Janse van Rensburg at the end of February delivered Motus’ financial results for the six months ended December 31.

He noted that “getting the balance right” between new brands, growing brands, mature volume brands, and brands viewed as under pressure was currently one of the more challenging jobs the JSE-listed company faced as it sought to further increase its profitability.

New brands include the likes of China’s Great Wall Motors (GWM) and Chery, with Suzuki and Mahindra deemed as growing brands.

Hyundai, Kia and Toyota were mature volume brands, while Janse van Rensburg described Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan and Ford as brands under pressure as they faced shrinking market share.

He emphasised, however, that Motus had no plans to abandon these brands, as they still traded at high volumes – it was more that they were not trading at high volumes as before.

This meant that Motus’ goal was “to fix” its portfolio of under-pressure dealerships by moving Nissan and Ford into multi- franchise dealerships, for example, while some Volkswagen dealerships had been the subject of cost cuts.

In some instances, Volkswagen and Audi had also been placed under the same dealership roof. (Volkswagen owns the Audi brand.)

Janse van Rensburg said the multi-franchise model had proved successful for Motus when it came to new and emerging brands, noting that it should also deliver positive results in this instance.

Altogether, Motus has retrenched 67 people to date, largely at dealerships under pressure.

Staff had also largely agreed to benefit cuts, noted Janse van Rensburg.

When quizzed on the parts availability of the spate of new brands entering South Africa, Janse van Rensburg said supply had sometimes verged on erratic in the past, but that the situation had since improved for the more established newcomers, such as Chery and GWM, to a level that was on par with the more traditional brands.

Motus reported an 8% increase in operating profit, to R2.74-billion, for the six months ended December 31 compared with the same period in 2024.

Revenue was up 3%, to R57.6-billion.

The import and distribution business contributed 17% to the group’s operating profit, retail and rental 40%, mobility solutions 22%, and aftermarket parts 21%.

Retail and rental saw a 4% increase in operating profit, with the South African retail business up 22%.

Vehicle rental saw a 10% jump in operating profit, mobility solutions was up 4%, aftermarket parts was also up 4%, and the import and distribution business saw a 66% surge in profit.

Within this business unit, Hyundai saw a 9% increase in sales, Kia was up 24%, Renault was down 2%, Mitsubishi sales dropped by 21%, with newcomer to the Motus stable, Tata, now selling more than 400 units a month, placing it in the top 20.

The best-selling Tata was the Tiago entry-level model.