South Africa has a new electric car king

August 12, 2024

For the first time in nearly a decade, BMW has been dethroned as South Africa’s top-selling battery electric vehicle (BEV) brand.

Local sales of fully-electric cars continued to surge in 2024, with a 49% year-on-year increase in the first six months of the year.

Data from the National Automobile Association of South Africa (Naamsa) and Lighstone Auto shows that Volvo sold 374 fully-electric passenger cars in the first half of 2024, compared with the BMW Group’s tally of 283.

The achievement is significant considering that BMW has been leading BEV sales in the country since the local launch of the i3 hatchback in March 2015.

When including Volvo Group Southern Africa’s nine sales — likely to be for heavy-duty trucks — the Swedish carmaker accounted for 51.1% of all EVs sold in the country during the period.

Mercedes-Benz and GWM were the third and fourth best-selling EV manufacturers, but they were far behind the two leaders, managing just 32 and 28 sales, respectively.

GWM’s tally is not bad, considering it only offers one EV model — the Ora 03 — which was launched late last year. With a starting price under R700,000, this is one of South Africa’s most affordable EVs.

Mercedes-Benz’s EQ range is aimed strictly at luxury car buyers, so its options are less financially accessible to the general market than BMW, Volvo, and GWM.

Rounding out the top five brands was the Volkswagen Group — with ten registrations during the first half of the year.

This cohort will likely consist of some E-tron models from Volkswagen-owned Audi and possibly the handful of ID.4 models the company recently brought into the country for testing by the media, dealers, and select Volkswagen customers.

The company only plans to put its first Volkswagen BEVs on sale for the general South African public in 2026.

One noteworthy omission from the statistics was Chinese brand BYD, whose data does not appear to have been added to Naamsa’s sales figures.

The table below shows how many BEVs each South African car manufacturer sold during the first half of 2024.

Rank	Manufacturer	BEV units sold
1	Volvo Cars (passenger vehicles only)	374
2	BMW Group (including Mini)	283
3	Mercedes-Benz	32
4	GWM	28
5	Volkswagen Group SA	10
6	Volvo Group Southern Africa	9
7	Daimler Trucks Southern Africa	4
8	JAC Motors South Africa	3
9	Jaguar Land Rover	3
10	Hyundai	2
11	Porsche	1
	Total	749

Volvo’s big trump card was the EX30, which launched locally in the first quarter of 2024.

With 281 sales, it made up over 37% of the total EV sales during the first half of the year.

The crossover is not only the company’s most affordable EV but its fastest production car yet. The twin-motor model can go from a standstill to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds.

Even the entry-level single motor variant starting from under R800,000 can achieve a 0–100km/h acceleration of 5.7 seconds.

MyBroadband reviewed the EX30 Twin Motor Performance over three months and found it delivered an excellent driving experience and was generally comfortable for a couple’s needs.

The larger Volvo XC40 Recharge was the second best-selling model overall, adding a further 81 sales to Volvo’s count.

The C40 — which is nearly identical to the XC40 but switches out an SUV body for a coupé shape — sold 12 units.

BMW entered the model sales rankings at number three with 79 units of the BMW iX3, while the BMW iX placed fourth with 69 sales.

An additional three BMW models were in the top 10, counting the Mini Cooper SE, which is also made by the BMW Group.

Below are the top 10 best-selling BEVs in South Africa in the first six months of 2024.