Sales Of Plug-in Hybrids In South Africa In First Half of 2024 Almost Match Total For All of 2023 – CleanTechnica

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Plug-in hybrid vehicles seem to have a growing market in South Africa. In 2023, there were 333 plug-in hybrids sold in South Africa. The number of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) sold in the first half of 2024 has already hit 88% of last year’s total, as 293 PHEVs were sold during that period. The number of PHEVs sold in the first 6 months of 2024 is more than double the number of PHEVs sold in 2022, and more than 6 times the number of PHEVs sold in 2021! However, 2021 sales could have been impacted by the global supply chain crisis. There are also more PHEV models available in South Africa now than before, which has also helped to grow sales.

Leading the charge in the PHEV sales is the BMW X1 with 88 units, followed by the Volvo XC60 with 42 units. The BMW XM rounds off the top three. A couple of models from Ferrari also make the top 10. Ferrari PHEVs seem to be an in-thing in South Africa, as given the generally low number of Ferraris sold in the country, it seems a decent proportion of them are now PHEVs.

Plug-less hybrids (HEVs) sales are also growing in South Africa. Last year, 6484 HEVs were sold in South Africa. In the first half of 2024, there were 6137 HEVs sold in the country. That means in the first 6 months of 2024, the number of HEVs sold has already hit 95% of last year’s sales. Popular HEVs include the Toyota Corolla Cross, which leads the way by a huge margin. 4,341 Toyota Corolla Cross HEVs were sold in the first half of 2024, followed by 505 units of the Haval H6, 370 Toyota RAV 4s, 301 Haval Jolion HEVs, and 146 GWM Tank 300s.

Including the 749 battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) sold in the first half of 2024, a total of 7179 electrified vehicles were sold in South Africa. 7746 were sold in all of 2023, meaning that the total for 2024 so far is already 93% of last year’s total. Looking at the most recent full year data, the market shares for plug-in hybrid, BEV, and plug-less hybrids were 0.06%, 0.17%, and 1.2% respectively. These electrified vehicles had a combined market share of 1.5% of the South African new vehicle sales market.

Toyota has a big following in South Africa, and therefore it is very easy to see why the Toyota Corolla Cross HEV has done quite well there. Of course, as it does globally, Toyota has been promoting its HEVs in a big way. It gets you thinking though, with all the advances made so far in the battery-electric vehicle segment globally, couldn’t South Africa actually bypass the HEV age? A lot of people will probably have range anxiety and could go for a PHEV instead of an HEV, provided the PHEV has a decent electric mode real range of over 120km or so. South Africa’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure is also growing nicely, which should give a lot more people confidence to go full EV and get BEVs, provided there a good selection of BEVs priced below R500,000, a figure that has been cited as a ceiling for most buyers.