How many traditional hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles were sold in South Africa in Q1 2024? Let’s take a closer look at the official sales figures.

Naamsa has released official sales figures for so-called new-energy vehicles (NEVs) – that is, traditional hybrids, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and fully electric vehicles (EVs) – for the opening quarter of the year. According to the industry representative body, NEV sales across the 15 brands active in this space increased 82.7% year on year to 3,042 units in Q1 2024.

This latest growth comes off the back of significant year-on-year increases of 421.7% (to 4,674 units) in 2022 and 65.7% (to 7,746 units) in 2023, though both instances admittedly came off low bases. In fact, electrified models still comprise only a small fraction of local registrations, with NEV sales – we believe Naamsa doesn’t include mild hybrids in this group – breaching the 1% barrier for the first time last year, comprising 1.45% of the total new-vehicle market.

According to figures reported to Naamsa, 82 units of the fully electric Volvo EX30 were sold in Q1 2024.

But back to the latest sales figures. Naamsa says EV registrations in Q1 2024 came in at 330 units, up from 232 units in the opening quarter of 2023. By our maths, that’s a year-on-year increase of 42.2%. For the record, the industry representative body says total EV sales for 2023 sat at 929 units (interestingly adjusted slightly downwards from its previous figure of 931 units).

Meanwhile, PHEVs were again less popular than fully electric models, with just 138 units sold in Mzansi in the opening quarter of 2024. That said, year-on-year growth in the plug-in hybrid market stood at a considerable 452%, leaving this segment well placed to beat its 2023 total of 333 units (a figure Naamsa previously reported as 267 units).

That leaves traditional hybrids, which accounted for the bulk of NEV registrations in Q1 2024 at 84.6%, reflecting a sales total of 2,574 units (up 82.8%, year on year). For the record, Naamsa’s latest dataset suggests traditional hybrid sales came in at 6,484 units last year, down slightly on its previously reported figure of 6,495 units.

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