Last year's drop in new-vehicle exports from South Africa was not nearly as catastrophic as indicated initially.
Naamsa | The Automotive Business Council this week issued a significant correction to South Africa’s 2024 new-vehicle export data “following a comprehensive data verification exercise” which showed that around 82 500 units went unreported.
Data released earlier this month showed that total new-vehicle exports from South Africa were down 22.8% in 2024 compared with 2023, at 308 380 units.
However, this has now been updated to a 2.2% drop, with new figures indicating that 390 845 new vehicles were exported from South Africa last year.
The discrepancy was almost entirely the result of an in-house error at Volkswagen Group Africa (VWGA), which saw the Kariega-based manufacturer misreport a significant portion of its vehicle exports by vehicle identification number from March to December last year.
This has since been corrected, with a double verification process now put in place, says VWGA spokesperson Andile Dlamini.
The 73-year-old VWGA plant last year celebrated a production record of 167 084 vehicles, with 131 485 units of this number – Polos – exported to more than 30 global markets.
Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa says the auto sector body collaborates extensively with data specialist Lightstone Auto at the beginning of every year to conduct a thorough data accuracy exercise.
“I’m confident that our internal data verification systems are robust, which allowed us to identify and rectify this error promptly.”
