Mahindra has become the eighth-largest vehicle manufacturer in South Africa-- two months after it entered the top ten.
03 Apr 2025 | 1942 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.'s South African unit has registered its highest-ever annual sales of 15,088 vehicles in the financial year that ended March 2025, driven by a record-breaking performance in March. The company sold 2,253 vehicles last month—its best monthly tally to date—marking a 40% year-on-year surge and breaching the ...
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Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.'s South African unit has registered its highest-ever annual sales of 15,088 vehicles in the financial year that ended March 2025, driven by a record-breaking performance in March. The company sold 2,253 vehicles last month—its best monthly tally to date—marking a 40% year-on-year surge and breaching the 2,000-unit milestone in a single month for the first time.
The March performance helped Mahindra South Africa cement its position as one of the fastest-growing vehicle brands in the country. The company also set new benchmarks across segments during the month, selling a record 1,000 SUVs, its highest ever monthly bakkie sales at 1,256 units, and delivering 145 Scorpio-N SUVs—the most in any month to date.
Strong traction among retail buyers throughout the year underpinned Mahindra’s growth trajectory and reinforced its rising popularity in the competitive South African automotive market.
With the new sales benchmarks, Mahindra has become the eighth-largest vehicle manufacturer in the country, just two months after it entered the top ten. “A detailed analysis of the naamsa sales figures for the financial year to end-March shows that Mahindra is the fastest-growing vehicle brand among the high-volume (more than 500 units per month) brands,” said Rajesh Gupta, CEO of Mahindra South Africa.
Mahindra has occupied this top spot three times in the past decade, in 2018, 2022, and now in 2025. “We are more than thrilled about our sales performance over the past 12 months, but especially by the underlying story told by these numbers,” said Gupta.
"This remarkable feat marks Mahindra’s third time emerging us fastest growing brand in a year, solidifying its position as one of the top three best-performing brands in South Africa over the past seven years, with a consistent seven-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 17%," said Gupta.
“The overwhelming majority of sales in the past month and past year were made to individuals and not as bulk sales to fleet buyers. This is a true reflection of the health of the Mahindra brand.”
Capacity Expansion
Mahindra aims to continue growing its footprint in South Africa. In the past year, the group has broken ground on a new manufacturing hub at the Dube Tradeport in Durban.
This new facility with a monthly production capacity of over 1,000 units, will replace the existing factory which produces 700 units a month. The new facility will offer the automaker advanced assembly capabilities for its range of Pik Up bakkies.
Recently, Mahindra has also taken a new parts distribution warehouse and training facility in Midrand, Gauteng. The location more than doubles its previous holding capacity of parts and components, and it will soon house the brand’s parts storage, training centre, and special fitment centre under one roof.
Further, the automaker has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for a fully-fledged manufacturing facility for completely knocked-down vehicles in South Africa. At the moment, the company produces semi knocked-down Pik Up vehicles on local soil.
A completely knocked-down vehicles refers to when a car is built from scratch in one factory, and it represents a much bigger investment into a country than the semi knocked-down route.
Mahindra and the IDC have also agreed to investigate the manufacturing of parts for fully built-up electric vehicles in South Africa.
These initiatives signal to South Africa, “our second home outside of India,” that Mahindra is here for the long haul, according to Gupta. “We are here to stay, and we will continue to invest in the country to grow our market share and develop the country in general.”