Toyota’s Land Cruiser 79 climbed into the top half of the list of South Africa’s 10 best-selling bakkies in December 2024. Here are the sales figures for the final month of the year…
In December 2024, South Africa’s new-vehicle market improved 2.5% year on year to 41 273 units. While the passenger-vehicle segment was yet again the driver of this overall industry growth, sales in the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) space slid 10.3% year on year to 9 136 units.
So, what happened on the list of Mzansi’s best- and worst-selling bakkies in December 2024? Well, the Toyota Hilux ended the year right where it started – at the very top of the list. In 2024’s final month, Toyota registered as many as 2 926 units of the Prospecton-built bakkie around SA, representing an 8.3% increase over November 2024‘s effort.
Meanwhile, local sales of the Ford Ranger dipped 14.4% month on month to 1 924 units in December, meaning the Silverton-manufactured contender found itself more than 1 000 units off the pace in 2nd place. However, the Isuzu D-Max’s month-on-month decline was even more marked, with sales of the Struandale-made model – which nevertheless retained 3rd position – falling a considerable 38.4% to 1 086 units in December 2024.
Though local registrations of the KwaZulu-Natal-assembled Mahindra Pik Up plummeted 44.2% month on month to 390 units, the Indian brand’s bakkie still managed to retain 4th place. However, the Toyota Land Cruiser 79 (352 units) range – which recently welcomed a manual-gearbox version of the 2.8-litre GD-6 powertrain – was hot on its heels, moving up 2 places to crack the top 5 in December.
The Ford-built Volkswagen Amarok (315 units) remained in 6th spot last month, while the Rosslyn-produced Nissan Navara (300 units) slid 2 rankings to finish in 7th. Despite a slow-down in sales compared with November, the GWM P-Series (which will soon gain a facelift, with the standard models adopting the “P300” badge) managed to keep hold of 8th place, with 169 units registered.
Interestingly, the Chinese-made Peugeot Landtrek breached 3 figures for only the 3rd time this year, with its December tally of 126 units representing its 2nd-best effort of 2024 and proving enough for it to return to the top 10 and snaffle 9th. As a reminder, Stellantis SA plans to commence local assembly of this bakkie from completely knocked-down kits at a new facility in Gqeberha towards the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026.
Finally, the Mitsubishi Triton – which moved into a new generation locally in November 2024 – closed out the table with 65 units, retaining 10th place. Though this figure represented a decrease compared with the 82 examples sold in the preceding month, it was indeed enough to keep the Japanese contender inside the top 10.
Best of the rest in December 2024: bakkies outside top 10
What about the bakkies that didn’t crack the top 10 in December 2024? Well, the JAC T-Series – the Chinese firm unfortunately reported only a combined figure for its T6, T8 and T9 line-ups, so we technically can’t rank these individual nameplates in the top 10 – managed 86 units.
Meanwhile, the GWM Steed – which had placed 9th in November – finished on 52 units, while the Mahindra Bolero ended the month on 19 units. Next came the Jeep Gladiator (8 units), a facelifted version of which is expected to launch locally at some point in 2025, with the since-discontinued Nissan NP200 (production ceased at Rosslyn back in March 2024) bringing up the rear on just 3 units.
10 best-selling bakkies in SA for December 2024
1. Toyota Hilux – 2 926 units
2. Ford Ranger – 1 924 units
3. Isuzu D-Max – 1 086 units
4. Mahindra Pik Up – 390 units
5. Toyota Land Cruiser 79 – 352 units
6. Volkswagen Amarok – 315 units
7. Nissan Navara – 300 units
8. GWM P-Series – 169 units
9. Peugeot Landtrek – 126 units
10. Mitsubishi Triton – 65 units
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