Compliments of the new year to you, yes you reading here. We hope that you have had a great transition and are ready to take on the new year, so? straight to business shall we. Let us take a look at the sales recording in the month of December because believe it or not people were doing more than just celebrating festive.
The new vehicle market registered a strong conclusion to the year in December 2025, with aggregate industry new vehicle sales reaching 48,983 units, an increase of 7,882 vehicles compared to the 41,101 units recorded in December 2024. This year-end momentum coincided with festive cheer as consumer confidence showed a notable improvement in the fourth quarter and marked the highest reading of the year.
The December 2025 new passenger car market reflected a sound performance with a year-on-year volume increase of 20,3%, while light commercial vehicles saw a gain of 23,7%. Truck and bus sales, however, ended the year on a weaker note with medium commercial vehicles decreasing year-on-year by 7,0% while heavy trucks and buses decreased year-on-year by 13,2%.
Vehicle export sales in December 2025 reached 26,852 units, reflecting a decrease of 10,4% compared to the 29,955 vehicles exported during December 2024. Overall, out of the total reported industry sales of 48,983 vehicles, an estimated 44,486 units or 90,8% represented dealer sales; 6,3% went to the rental industry; 1,9% to government; and 1,0% to industry corporate fleets.
And to actually wrap up 2025 in terms of exports, Vehicle exports reached 408,224 units, representing a gain of 4,4% compared to 2024, breaching the 400 000-unit mark for the first time ever. The industry continues to monitor the European market, where a softening of the 2035 deadline to a 90% CO2 cut (rather than 100%) provides a marginal reprieve for OEMs navigating the NEV transition race.
The top selling vehicle brands in the latter end of 2025 were as follows :
1. Toyota – 12 933 units
2. Volkswagen Group – 5 014 units
3. Suzuki – 4 961 units
4. Hyundai – 3 068 units
5. Ford – 2 987 units
6. GWM – 2 453 units
7. Chery – 2 249 units
8. Isuzu – 1 906 units
9. Kia – 1 508 units
10. Jetour – 1 371 units
Jetour performance succeeded fellow Chery division Omoda & Jaecoo by (1 317 units) leaving them just short of breaking into the top 10 at 11th, with sales slipping 6.5% from its record November showing. Renault SA managed 1 304 units thus moving to 12th, but they did finish ahead of Mahindra SA who moved 1 234 units, Nissan SA moved 1 011 units and BMW Group SA sold 843 units (including the Mini brand).