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Braaivleis, beer, biltong, rugby ,and bakkies. Those are the things that make our South African hearts happy. So, it's no wonder bakkies, or pickup trucks as they're better known, fall under one of the most popular vehicle segments in the South African new car market - the light commercial vehicle segment.
With fuel prices now just below the R27 per litre mark, most motorists are downsizing their cars or turning to diesel-driven vehicles to try and make ends meet by getting more fuel-efficient ones. Bakkies are not just workhorses; they've become lifestyle vehicles and essential modes of transport for many small businesses.
READ | Watch out Ranger, Hilux! VW's new SA-built Amarok bakkie is up for a challenge
It's no surprise that bakkies are the best-sellers for most local automakers.
We take a quick glance at how many popular bakkies South Africans bought during June.
1. Ford sold 1 601 Ranger bakkies in June. This is a healthy number considering the next-generation model will launch locally later in November.
2. Isuzu moved 1 280 D-Max models, and they've been selling more than 1 000 bakkies every month since its local launch of their new generation version earlier in April this year.
3. The Nissan NP200 is the only half-tonner bakkie left in the SA new car market, and it continues to bring in the honey for the automaker. 1 249 models found new owners in June, while Nissan also sold 554 new Navara bakkies.
4. No doubt the Toyota Hilux is the bakkie king in our land, even with lower numbers being sold due to the automaker's Durban plant still being shut due to the April floods. SA's most popular automaker sold 969 Hilux bakkies and 297 Land Cruiser pickup trucks.
5. Haval Motors sold 649 bakkies: The GWM P-Series remains popular, with 382 units sold, while the GWM Steed moved 277 units.
6. Mahindra is up next with a total of 681: the Bolero moved 66 models while the Scorpio Pik Up brought in 615 sales for the automaker.
7. Volkswagen sold 184 units of its spectacular Amarok bakkie. This is yet another one of those vehicles that makes me wonder why more people don't buy it. Perhaps it's considered more of a premium offering, but the Amarok is incredibly well put together when you compare it against the best of the best. And that V6 version is something extraordinary. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could afford it.
The automaker has also just revealed its brand new Amarok earlier in July. The bakkie will be exclusively built here in South Africa in collaboration with Ford at its Silverton plant outside Pretoria. We're hoping numbers will improve once it sells here in early 2023.
8. JAC Motors sold 134 bakkies: 54 T-Series models and 80 X-Series models.
9. Mitsubishi sold 60 of its Triton bakkies, and this always boggles my mind since this is such an underrated vehicle with great features and fuel consumption readings. A great value-for-money offering.
10. The same could be said about the Peugeot Landtrek; outstanding value, incredible features, and also impressive fuel economy. The Stellantis Group sold 29 of these bakkies.
11. Jeep SA - which also falls under the Stellantis Group - finally launched its R1.2-million Gladiator bakkie in June. While many of our readers said the price is way too high and expensive, no one would buy it; the automaker sold 55 of these premium offerings in just its first month going on sale.
12. We round off the bakkie list with Mazda. The BT-50 is also a great offering, but its pricing is just not what it needs to be as a competitive offering in this segment with so many other options available to eager buyers. Mazda sold 17 of these bakkies in June.
