Japanese Manufacturers Upping Reverse Importing

'Reverse importing' means importing cars into the brand's country of origin that are manufactured abroad. It's a very common practice, but not so much in Japan or Asia generally. Considering that Japan has many car plants overseas, it's surprising to me that reverse importing has been kept to a minimum. 

To the right is a chart broken down into five year periods. It shows the average number per year of imported passenger cars that are Japanese brands. 

There is a fair bit of fluctuating but for eleven months of 2025 the number is up substantially. Is it just a flash in the pan or is this going to be a more common practice?

It's true that back in 1995 and 1996, there were slightly more imported but they quickly fell back. Could this happen again? It doesn't seem so. There are financial and political pressures on car makers so importing can help in both cases. 

One reason for the reluctance was to maximise local production, which I believe is viewed very positively in Japan. I recall the first generation Dualis (Qashqai) crossover was made in Japan but it was not exported so the volumes didn't justify it being just for local consumption. 

The second generation therefore wasn't produced domestically. All export markets (except China) were covered by production from the UK. One would think a switch to sourcing cars from there would be logical but no, they just stopped selling them in Japan.

Another possible reason was that unhelpful certification procedures, which makes lower volume imports for regular cars less attractive. The current situation acts effectively as an import obstructor. 

I notice that Toyota is going to import some lower volume cars made in the USA. It will be facilitated by relaxed certification procedures that will be implemented by Japan’s transportation ministry. I don't know if this relaxing of certification procedures is for all future imports or is only being applied selectively. 

It would make sense for Japanese car companies to import more to avoid duplication and offer more variety. It may impact slightly on local production volumes but surely to a negligible degree. Of course, obstructive certification procedures may force them to limit that. Still, there may be an increase of reverse importing, especially if the Japanese authorities cooperate. 

Challenges For The Automobile Industry

Industries generally are grappling with various issues but the car industry is particularly vulnerable. One former CEO was critical of the wastefulness of the industry with a reluctance to share costs with other manufacturers. Necessity is moving many to increased cost sharing. 

Car companies have many issues to deal with and most are not self inflicted. Here are some of them.

Tariffs: These have always been around, usually started to protect local manufacturing but tend to hang around long after that is no longer required. The worst offenders are in Asia, with China recently reducing the threshold on tariffs for premium cars, which is over and above its standard tariff. The US has also been using tariffs to encourage more local manufacturing. 

Regulations. Reducing emissions is the goal, achieved with incentives or disincentives. If done with reasonable warning, the industry can adjust. Sometimes, they can prove to be hard to achieve, causing backtracking as with the EU in a recent about face on its 2035 deadline to end fossil fuel vehicles. A relief for some in the industry, but still disruptive for others. 

Instability. A recent semiconductor shortage and raw material issues contribute to production delays. Rising costs for materials, energy and labour is pushing up costs and usually prices. Even logistical disruptions regarding maritime and road transport have to be accommodated.

Technology. Modern cars are becoming even more complex, with emphasis shifting from mechanical engineering (which is still needed) to increased software development for new features. 

Increasing Competition & Development cycles. Many new brands are coming out of China and the fight for market share is hotting up. New model development has been extremely slow in the past but things are speeding up in that area. 

Summary. The consumer is increasingly spoiled for choice, perhaps even bewildered but doesn't necessarily think about challenges the industry is facing. We just want a good product that fulfils our needs. Meanwhile, the industry grapples with all the challenges that come its way. Hurdles it must jump to survive and hopefully prosper. 

Electric Vehicles Proving Expensive

When I say proving expensive, I'm refering to some manufacturers in this instance. In particular Ford and the F-150 Lightning. If the name Lightning implied that would be selling fast, then that would be a misnomer. 

Sales were suggested to be in the 150,000 region per annum. They peaked at 33,500 in 2024 and over the four years it's been on sale, barely got past a combined total of 100,000. The scrapping of federal EV tax credits may have been the final nail in the coffin, but maybe it was doomed regardless. 

The amazing thing is it was the best selling BEV truck in the US. Mind you, the Cybertruck wasn't exactly competition, just a little opposition. Still there are others out there and they were beaten too. Despite that, Ford has decided to end the Lighning. 

So this u-turn is costing the company billions of dollars, according to Ford. From the outset, I never saw BEVs as an ideal mass market vehicle, more likely to carve out a niche. Surely, fuel cell or synthetic fuels have potential for broader mass appeal. 

Some markets see it differently and are pushing BEVs to become the future of mobility, for now at least. One positive is they are providing some stability by not flip flopping. What it shows is that predicting the future is as difficult as it has ever been. Those that are putting a great deal of money into BEVs are taking a risk and already some have been burned. Electric vehicles sure can be expensive. 

Toyota Deeside Wales

The UK produces quite a few car engines. Up to November, 2025 about 1.5 million engines were manufactured YTD. With the world moving away from ICE powered vehicles, that looked like an industry living on borrowed time. Recent pull backs on the move to ban such engines will give this industry a reprieve. 

One such plant is situated in Deeside, North Wales, which started producing engines for the Carina model in 1992. My father grew up in the area, so I do have a connection with it. He worked at the local Shotton Steelworks before moving away. 

According to Toyota, the plant employs around 600 workers and in 2024, a total of 244,463 hybrid & petrol engines were produced. 

They found their way into the Corolla built in Derbyshire, for the C-HR model built in Turkey and the Corolla Cross in South Africa. 

The Deeside engine assembly line has the capability to produce an engine every 44 seconds, the fastest Toyota assembly line of its type in the World.

So if you own any of the models mentioned above, the engine came from Deeside, Wales. Pictures and information sourced from Toyota UK. 

EU to Backtrack on China Sourced EVs?

Since November 2024, the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese sourced electric cars (BEV) due to unfair advantage through state subsidies. Now pressure is being applied by a European car maker who manufacture a BEV in China to make an exception for them. What is the reasoning?

According to VW's SEAT/Cupra, they say it is "an unfair tariff that penalises strategic investments." So making cars in China rather than Europe is 'strategic' or the definition of the word 'helping achieve a plan'. Protecting European jobs isn't the plan nor punishing perceived infair subsidies, so I guess increased profit is the strategic plan.  

After deciding to build a car somewhere and then legislation is introduced that affects that decision adversely is a bitter pill to swallow. Getting an exemption would seem an ideal solution. The downside is opening the door to many others doing the same and that works against the initial tariff's aim. 

Other brands make electric cars in China. BMW decided to make the MINI Aceman in China rather than the UK but would retaining tariffs lead BMW to start making them in the UK? Volvo produces the EX30 in Belgium and that circumvents tariffs. It seems Dacia will bring the Spring model production back to Europe in 2026. I wonder how the manufacturers that accepted BEV tariffs and are moving production back to Europe are now feeling?

 As to whether tariffs are a good idea or not in this situation is not an argument I want to join. As a general observation though, SEAT/Cupra is looking at their personal situation and they want an exception for their benefit. Considering the effect on others and the impact on the overall objective becomes secondary. 

BEV sales in Europe aren't going that well anyway and plans to impose a ban on selling new cars with internal combustion engines in the EU from 2035 have been abandoned. I wonder if trying to beat the tariff will reap that much anyway.

Brands From China In France : 2025 (Jan -Nov)

The chart to the right shows sales of brands that are based in China. Rk is where they rank compared to all brands, MS is market share and +/- shows increases over 12 months of 2024. 

There have been some impressive gains plus some new ones, n/a showing that. Saying that, compared to many other markets, the 3.1% overall penetration is low. 

MG is well established (since 2020) and BYD has wasted no time in moving up the rankings, 2024 is its first full year here. Leapmotor and Xpeng have done well in a short time as well. 

It will be interesting to see what develops from here. The EU have set tariffs based on what they have determined are unfair subsidies. These are not imposed as a blanket figure but vary according to the calculated amount of the subsidy. 

This will have impacted the numbers compared to the UK, where they haven't acted on this issue so far. I would like to do an article on Norway, which has like the UK, does not impose tariffs. I just don't get enough data to do that. 

For others in the series: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore. The UK.

Data source: AAADATA. 

Photo source: MG (EHS - top) and Xpeng (G6 -bottom) France. 

JLR's Gerry McGovern Leaves The Company

Anyone who reads articles here will know my affection for the Jaguar marque but also my disquiet about the direction it is being taken. Bold decisions were needed with Jaguar, but bold needs to be executed sensibly. I cannot think of one decision that would describe Jaguar's treatment in recent times as sensible. 

The design of the new range of Jaguar EVs looked appalling in my opinion. One could tell that designers of the quality of Ian McCallum were not part of the process. The new CEO has shown JLR design boss Gerry McGovern the door. There could be various reasons as to why his departure happened, but I won't speculate. 

The new designs and the premium/electric direction Jaguar is being taken cause me to fear for its future because I am not sure it will work. Can JLR afford to recalibrate Jaguar again, or are they committed to continuing their current trajectory? I would say the latter, unfortunately.

PS. For more on Jaguar, simply click on 'Brand - Jaguar' in the Labels column. 

An Entitled Workforce

My grandfather worked his way up in a company to management level in the UK. Having been a worker and in management, he had a perspective on both sides, yet he would often say "The working man's enemy is the working man himself". 

JLR has recently had to contend with tariffs put in place in its largest market. It was more recently hit by a cyber attack that really hurt the company financially. You would think common sense would prevail and the current situation JLR is facing would temper wage increase expectations. 

A pay offer has just been submitted by the company and the trade unions recommended its acceptance. 7,724 workers rejected the offer, with 2,129 accepting it. This is a short sighted, self centred reaction from the majority of the workers. 

I recently wrote an article on the subject generally, which can be read by clicking here. So back to the negotiating table. I would have thought the best thing for JLR would now be to start planning to move all its production off shore. They could make vehicles just about anywhere else at a lower cost. 

The industry is facing increased competition and JLR is under pressure like many other car makers. A shout out to the trade unions for showing some common sense, and the 2,129 workers who are seeing the bigger picture. As for the rest, you are your own worst enemy. 

SAIC - GM : 2009-2025 (Q1-Q3)

SAIC and GM established a joint venture agreement to manufacture and sell cars in China. In 1999 Buick Regal cars started rolling off the assembly line. The data here picks up from 2009 with three brands being assembled by SAIC-GM. This excludes imported vehicles but that would be minimal at best. 

The 2025 figure is for nine months only but all the others 12 months. The Total column is from SAIC so is untouched. The brand volumes are from other sources and they don't always quite align with each other. They also at times vary slightly from the SAIC figure. In such cases, the Chev figure is adjusted as it is the one that is the issue.

We will briefly discuss each brand separately. 

Buick is a popular brand here. When the banks were insisting on GM reducing its number of brands, Buick was spared due to its popularity in China. Over 700,000 were assembled in 2009 and from 2015 to 2018 sales exceeded one million. 

From there, sales consistently slipped downward until 2024 when they almost halved. With three months to go in 2025, sales will surely increase if not by much.

The Excelle model (photo above) has been the biggest selling model for most of the joint venture's history. When sales ended in 2022, the Envision took over as the best selling model by default but in no way compensated for the loss of the Excelle. 

Cadillac: It played a bit part for a while then came good around 2016. The inevitable slump came in 2024 but 2025 will be better. The XTS, XT5 and currenly CT5 have been the strongest selling models. 

Chevrolet: It may surprise some that Chevrolet has never outsold Buick in China. It got close in 2014 but then lost that battle. In 2024 sales collapsed and there is no revival coming in 2025. Speculation is rife that Chevrolet will be withdrawn from the market, but there is nothing official on that.

Some popular models have been the Lova, Cruze (photo below), Monza and Cavalier. 

Data source: SAIC and others. 

Conclusion: With competition heating up in China, the SAIC-GM joint venture has been badly affected. It is rallying in 2025, so future prospects are positive despite the recent downturn in sales. 

Proton Malaysia Sales : 2005-2009

For the first in the series, just click 2000-04

Of the two main car brands in Malaysia, Proton was the main player going into this period but it was being chased by Perodua. In 2006, Proton sold 171,000 cars and Perodua just under 140,000. A year later Proton crashed to 105,000 units and Perodua continued upwards to 155,000. What happened?

Perodua introduced the compact Myvi hatchback in 2005, the same as the Daihatsu Sirion and it was a good car. Roomy, economical and reliable, it took the market by storm and became the top selling model for nine consecutive years. The Vivi city car also came along in 2007.

Proton's Waja and Gen-2 were on the way out so the sudden swing in sales success. Proton hit back with the second generation Persona small car in 2007 (see picture above), compact Saga in 2008 and Exora small MPV. Sales lifted while Perodua's plateaued. Still, Perodua maintained its lead, ending this period 20,000 sales ahead of Proton.  

Data Source: Govt of Malaysia. Picture source: Autoevolution. 

High Wage Car Assembly

The difference in wages paid to car assembly workers varies greatly around the world. It is true that the wage cost per car isn't that high, perhaps 5-10% in a high wage country, but there are many variables. Premium cars would be less compared to mainstream cars. 

The car industry is experiencing cost pressures. Competition is heating up with more brands vying for your patronage. China was a big earner for companies until intense competition there started eroding profits. The Chinese government has recently encouraged car companies to pull back on aggressive discounting. In addition, shipping costs have also been rising.

Where does this leave car manufacturers? It must be tempting to move production to lower wage countries. That isn't a straightforward thing with investment in plants being hugely expensive. You can't just walk away from them. But over time, the shift can be carried out.

Car makers don't want a customer backlash if they moved all their production, so they manage the balance carefully. How would VW fare if it moved all its production out of Germany? With freight costs and the logistics of sending cars long distances, there is merit in having production close to the market where the bulk of the sales will be achieved. 

Workers on high wages understandably want to protect their earnings but at what cost? Would it be worth having a wage increase freeze or even a modest cut in wages to save a plant they work at? Unlikely to impossible. 

Belgium used to be a major car manufacturer but now has only one plant in Ghent. The fact is it didn't have a local brand which made it easier for car companies to leave. Wage costs were also a factor. 

Recently, Audi closed its plant there to move production to Mexico. Why? The factory wasn't fully utilised but lower wages would also have been an incentive. 

One Audi worker who was interviewed said he would struggle to find another job that paid as well. Car assembly does seem to be a well paid job for the level of skill required. I'm not surprised finding another job at that pay rate was highly unlikely. 

Would such a worker in hindsight been prepared to take a modest pay cut to keep a job that would still be reasonably well paid? The answer would be no. Many workers in high wage countries view their remuneration as an inalienable right. Maybe it's a case of not seeing the bigger picture.

There is no easy answer to this. Margins are being squeezed and costs have to be looked at. More cooperation and cost sharing between car companies is needed. The Japanese are good at doing that.

Car assembly in high wage countries may eventually be just for premium or maybe only luxury marques. The assembly workers may need to find lower wage jobs elsewhere if they can. 

China Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Aug)

I don't do many articles on China. Imported cars are not included in the data and that doesn't make any sense to me. For many brands it won't matter, but for some it paints a distorted picture. A few foreign brands fail to even make the chart because of that.

With the data below, 10,000 sales is the cutoff point. For the first eight months of 2025 approximately 18.34 million cars were sold here. BYD is now well ahead after taking the lead in 2023. VW had been well on top for decades and seemed invincible, but quite quickly things changed. 

VW is now far away from the top spot although and is still second, but for how long? The likes of Geely or Chery overtaking seems inevitable. Toyota is likewise losing market share along with VW and foreign brands generally.

Jaguar sales have stopped in all but a few places where they seemingly stocked up before production ended. In China they assemble Jaguars and nearly all 2025 XE and XF sales are here. They are doing a 90th anniversary XFL for a special price but only sold in China. I can't see why it couldn't have been exported to LHD markets. The interior is pictured below and it looks nice. 

Eighteen Years, 1.6m & Counting

I started doing this blog in October, 2007. Eighteen years ago. If you do the maths, that means I'm now eighteen years older than I was then. Actually, I don't mind getting older, it's the aging process I don't like. 

In that time, I've never had advertising nor allowed comments that are promoting a service or product. This area is 100% commercial free. I don't even ask any of you to buy me a coffee! It's nice to give without wishing to have something in return. Radical, I know.

You may also have noticed I don't like hyphens. Why not meld two words if required? Of course, being both the contributor and editor means I can do things like that. 

I like cars and statistics so the blog is something I enjoy although sometimes motivation isn't strong. The thing is I'm still putting out articles after all these years. I have been doing more data collation recently and some does end up in the blog. 

I write about cars but I don't like the direction of the car industry. Touch screens are less safe than physical controls and less efficient. They try to compensate with features such as autonomous braking and lane departure warning. I'm not against touch screens, just not having important controls there.

The car I drive I bought new twenty years ago. I look at modern cars and have never felt less interested in buying one. As for the electric push, I see them more as a stop gap measure until hydrogen fuel cell or the like gets established. 

A few tips for buying a car. 

1) Don't buy anything too big if you don't need the size. That's inefficient. 

2) Depreciation is a horrendous expense. Maintain your current vehicle and keep it as long as possible. 

3) If buying new, entry level models are usually the best value. Only buy higher spec if you really need the features they offer. 

I'm glad you enjoy the blog. You often have to pay for this sort of thing and I'm not trying to compete with pay sites. They invariably offer more, but for some, this offers all they want. 

If you are inclined to suggest some positive or constructive feedback, there is a comment facility. You don't have to register, but I do filter them to keep out the advertising ones, so posting isn't immediate. I reply to all of them, so feel free. All the best and keep safe.

Proton Malaysia Sales : 2000-04

In Malaysia, the two local brands of Perodia and Proton have been major players. I did an article way back on the progress of these two brands locally, which can be viewed by clicking here. 

I've found some data which I've sorted to show when Proton was top dog in Malaysia and what they were selling. It's nice to get hold of this sort of thing as older statistics are often harder to find than recent ones. 

In the year 2000, Proton had its market share around the 64% mark. Registrations increased over the next four years but so did competition and and by 2004, its share was at the 44% mark or down 20 percentage points. Sales volume was holding, but the market was growing.

Japanese and Korean brands were starting to have an impact on sales through expanded local production. It was never going to retain the market share it enjoyed in the 20th century. The question was how much would it surrender?

Data Source: Govt of Malaysia. Photo source: Netcarshow. 

The Mitsubishi based compact Saga Iswara was the best selling car, and was sold from 1992. It came with 4-door and hatchback body styles. It was a facelifted model from the original Saga which was released in 1985 as the first nationally produced car and was popular as a taxi. 

The small sized Wira was introduced in 1993, also with 4-door and hatchback model variants. It was based on the Mitsubishi Lancer but with modified styling. In my eyes it was nicely styled for a car going back that many years.

The medium sized Waja was offered only as a saloon car was the first model that was mainly developed by Proton. It was released in the year 2000 and presumably due to its size didn't hit the numbers of the smaller Saga Iswara and Wira.

Just in time for this time period arrived the small Gen-2, offered as a 4-door and hatchback. It was developed by proton with engineering input from Lotus. It looked good and handled well but the interior was not so well executed. 

Other models were the Perdana executive car, released in 1995 and based on the Mitsubishi Eterna. The Satira 3-door hatch back (introduced in 1994) was based on the Mitsubishi Colt/Mirage with Lotus tuned handling. The Juara microvan (2001) and Arena compact pick up (2002) were two new entries for this time. The Putra sports coupe and Tiara small hatch were both on the way out. 

For 2005-2009, simply click here.

Toyota Corolla GR Production Expansion

Toyota has for the majority of its UK production history assembled two models. That hasn't been the case since 2018 when the last Avensis rolled out of the plant. The Burnaston, Derby facility has been under utilised for some time now but that is going to be addressed to some degree. Cue the Toyota Corolla GR.

For the article about Toyota UK reaching 5 million cars produced, please click here.

Toyota has been producing Corolla GR for a few selected markets, the reason being the Japanese assembly line is limited in terms of volume. Now the UK plant will also take on manufacturing the model from mid 2026. Initially, it will complement Japanese assembly but may in the future become the sole producer.

As the Corolla is already made at the UK plant. I thought it would be simply a case of running it down the same production line. However, a new production line is being set up especially for the model. There will still be a cost benefit from already making the Corolla there, so a logical move by Toyota.

I can see the model being popular in the UK and Europe, a region that has always appreciated driver focused cars. Nothing much has been given away regarding which markets will be getting it but Europe is surely going to figure large in the plan. We will have to wait and see what transpires.

Land Rover UK Historical Market Share

I have no history with the marque whatsoever. I may have driven in one many years ago but that's it. Yet I'm keen on them and like their design styling. 

Land Rover got into volume as new models were added. By the time 2001 arrived, there were four in total. Three were for to the passenger car segment and one was mainly a light commercial. The figures below are compared against all vehicles sold in the UK. 

In 2001, LR were taking 1.6% of the total. The fact that the data includes cars, trucks and buses, none of which LR compete with, it was not a bad result. The Evoque was released in 2011 and that noticeably lifted the volume as it quickly became the best selling model.

Another lift came with the Velar's release in 2017 and the same thing for the new Defender in 2020. There was a slight dip after that but a recovery came almost immediately. Current share is nearly double over the period below, thanks to  a wider range of models and the premium 4x4 SUV market is quite a popular one. 

A Defender Sport model is apparently on the way. It's reported to be a smaller and more affordable than the current Defender. That would be a model that would surely fit nicely into the range as other LR models head more up market.

Commercial sales are not that large for LR. They were 13% of the total sales in 2001 and were just under 9% in 2024. Two years ago, it was under 6% so a growth in that area of late. 

Thailand Top 40 Passenger Car Model Sales : 2024

In a market down 22%, minus figures in the '+/-' column were always going to be prolific. Toyota is the dominant player and that is shown in the list below. The Yaris tops the list, with the hatch and saloon variants combined. The Mitsubishi Attrage city car is to the right and sales held up well.

Pick up trucks are big here but the data below excludes those not classed as passenger cars. Despite that, they still figure prominently below. The D-Max is very popular, although that didn't stop sales halving. The Yaris Cross (picture at the top) arrived and in its first full year is already up to third. That's 91,000 Yaris variants in total, or put another way, 18% of the total passenger cars market! 

Data: DLT Thailand. Photos: Toyota & Mitsubishi Thailand.

Thailand Passenger Car Sales: 2024

Figures from Thailand often cover all vehicles but here I kept it to passenger cars only which took some time to extract. It's also a bit late for 2024 but I've been spending some time trying to catch up with this sort of time consuming data collation

With the total market down 22% for the year, few managed to increase their volume. As the Diff column here is measuring market share, there is some green colour to reflect that. Improving your share in a depressed market is an important achievement.

There is import duty to limit imports, which is almost the default setting in Asia when car  manufacturing takes places. That means those that manufacture here dominate the market. Toyota has over a third of the market with Honda and Isuzu the other two main brands. The advantage of a Toyota is that it completes your life...apparently.

The figures include pick up trucks, many of which are sold as passenger cars and they are popular. So brands that have pick ups in their range do well. Chinese brands are arriving but I assume to have a strong presence here, they will need to set up assembly plants to avoid the import duty.  

Data: DLT Thailand. Photos: Toyota & Ford Thailand.

France Passenger Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Aug)

Registrations were up 2% in August but down 7% YTD. Renault, Peugeot and Citroën each recorded an increase in market share. Last year they had 36% of the market when combined and YTD 39%. 

Dacia increased its portion which keeps it in third place. Toyota and VW both lost a place in the rankings due to Citroën's mini revival. Mercedes-Benz has fallen from 3.0% to 2.5% so far this year. Tesla is in a worse position, the drop in this instance from 2.4% to 1.4%. Fiat is down to 1.2%, well short of last year's 2.0%.

Land Rover sold over 10,000 vehicles last year but only 141 this year. I did a web search but couldn't find an explanation. My guess is it may be something to do with fines for excess emissions. There are French visitors to the site and if you could explain, plese leave a comment. You don't have to register to do so. 

The top selling models were:

Renault Clio - 66,910

Peugeot 208 - 47,720

Dacia Sandero - 44,169

Peugeot 2008 - 37,572

Peugeot 3008 - 27,614

Dacia Duster - 26,908

Citroën C3 - 26,567 (picture above)

Renault Captur - 25,349

Toyota Yaris Cross - 22,150

Renault Symbioz - 21,241

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand.

Top 50 Models.

Data source: AAAData. Picture Source: Citroën.

Iceland Passenger Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Aug)

Registrations for August were up 27% and up 27% YTD as well, on what was admittedly a poor 2024.  Kia has taken a clear lead and one would imagine will hold on to it. The photograph is from Kia, Reykjavik and it seems like a large dealership. 

Toyota is next with then a drop to Tesla, Dacia and Hyundai. Land Rover does well here and I presume most suited to the country. Some Chinese brands have arrived, such as BYD and Xpeng but overall the locals have stayed with the more established brands. 

The top models were:

Tesla Y - 657

Kia Sportage - 552

Dacia Duster - 506

Toyota RAV4 - 374

Kia Ceed - 261

Hyundai Tucson - 261

Kia EV3 - 257

Kia Sorento - 255

Suzuki Vitara - 229

Škoda Kodiak - 228

Land Rover Defender - 215

For Iceland 2024, just click the titles below:

Top 50 models

Brand Sales

Data source: Samgongustofa. Picture sources: Kia Iceland, Tesla.

Great Minds Think Alike

I was walking past a pick up truck yesterday and said to my other half how there is no way I'd consider such a vehicle due to its excessive length. 

I questioned why it had to have such a long front nose and that for all its size, the rear tray wasn't that big. As a packaging exercise, I opined it was a big fail. There must be a better way.

Then today I came across the Telo MT1. OK, so it's more a city car with a useful rear tray. Yet how many people buy a humungous pick up when all they need is something with the same basic attributes, contained within much smaller dimensions. Well, here is an answer.

It has the same footprint as a three door MINI which admittedly isn't that mini, but that's still impressive. It seats five, uses electricity to propel it along the road and longer, flatter items can be pushed into the cab when extra length is required. 

So an idea with potential. They haven't disclosed where it will be built but it seems it will be outsourced to a manufacturer. Perhaps Tesla may be up for it as it would make a change for them to make a pick up that people actually want to own. (The Telo website link).

Vauxhall UK Historical Market Share

While the Vauxhall name disappeared from NZ many years ago, I've had some contact with the Vauxhall brand. My parents had a Victor and then a Velox, both well made cars from what I can remember. In my first job, the company vans were CF Bedfords (Vauxhall's van division name) and they were a good van. 

When I visited the UK on my first overseas trip, I hired an oldish Vauxhall Chevette from a small garage and toured Old Blighty in it. It was a nice little car to drive. My last encounter with the brand was when I married my beloved, she came with the last model Viva and I have to say the least impressive of all the Vauxhall products I'd been involved with. Enough of the reminiscing. 

Going back to the 1960's (where my data starts), Vauxhall was some way behind BMC and Ford. It was close to the Rootes Group in size (it became Chrysler UK). It was a steady third in the UK through the 1980's and the consistently the second biggest brand in the 1990's. 

The graph below shows GM Vauxhall's vehicle market share from 2001 through to 2024. It includes light commercial vehicles. It was doing well initially, with the Corsa and Astra models leading the way and selling at almost identical levels. The Vectra had been a big selling model but now not so much. 

Then a decline kicked in from 2014. The Insignia was never that popular and the Astra was losing ground. The Corsa held up better but also suffered. GM was losing money on its once profitable European operation and in 2017 sold it to PSA.

People were switching to SUVs and crossovers and PSA lost no time in introducing two. The figures indicate they didn't sell that well and the decline in market share continued. By 2024, the Corsa (picture above) was the best selling, followed by the Mokka. 

Light commercials have become a much greater part of the overall sales, going from 7.5% of the brand's total in 2021 to just over 27% now. I presume that helps the bottom line but market share now being below 5% shows how far Vauxhall has fallen in terms of volume. It mirrors the fall that sister brand Opel is experiencing across Europe. 

Is this a problem? What it comes down to is profitability, and Stellantis has been able to leverage cost savings in Europe through shared platforms and the like. Vauxhall will likely remain a viable brand in the UK, but not chasing volume just for the sake of it. 

RSA Passenger Car Sales : 2025 (Jan- June)

Volkswagen was the best selling passenger car brand in South Africa until 2022. At that time, Toyota took over the top spot. Then in 2024 Suzuki moved into second place, relegating VW another ranking down to third. 

Toyota last lost some market share so far this year, Suzuki improved very slightly and VW has dropped further, to its lowest share since well into last century. 

VW's problem is based on relying on the Polo model, both current and the one before, which is sold as the Polo Vivo. The two brands now above it have a much broader spread of models that sell well.

Chinese brands have established themselves and are proving popular. Indian sourced cars do well here, for Toyota, Suzuki, and of course, Mahindra the main ones. 

Jaguar has ceased selling cars here as is the case elsewhere, the 28 sales that were achieved through what dealer stock was left. 

Some popular models YTD were:

Suzuki Swift - 13,840

VW Polo Vivo - 11,310

Toyota Corolla Cross - 9,576 

(Top photograph)

Hyundai Grand i10 - 7,836

Suzuki Fronx - 7,683

(Lower picture)

Toyota Starlet - 7,330

Chery Tiggo 4 - 7,099

Data source: Naamsa.

Photos : Toyota & Suzuki SA.