SA car buyers seek more EVs and BMWs, reveals AutoTrader

Searches for electric vehicles (EVs) surged by 110% to half a million in 2021, and BMW received eight million more consumer advert views last year.

These were some of the findings in the 2021 AutoTrader Car Industry Report which covers January to December 2021 on the automotive classifieds website

In 2021, a record high of more than 637-million total searches were conducted on AutoTrader representing a growth of 28% year on year, says CEO George Mienie.

According to the report, consumers are researching more brands than ever before but continue to be brand loyal. The five most searched for brands — BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Audi — remained the same in 2021, changing only in rank.

BMW remained the brand with the most consumer advert views and its popularity soared to 43.9-million views last year — just under 8-million more than the same period a year ago.

Another change over 2020 was in the most-viewed variants. The Volkswagen Golf GTI has historically been the most-viewed model and remains the top searched variant in 2021 with more than 3.2-million searches. But, early in 2021 for a short period, this changed to the Toyota Hilux 2.8GD-6 (the GTI ranked second).

The most searched for model last year was also the Toyota Hilux with 22.8-million searches (4.3% of all searches).

There was an increased number of searches for EVs last year compared to 2020. More than 540,000 searches of EVs were conducted in 2021, an increase of more than 110% year on year.

As more electric vehicles get introduced into the market, AutoTrader recorded searches for the Porsche Taycan increased by more than 900% last year while I-Pace searches rose 62%.

Interestingly there were 3,152 searches for the electric Ford Mustang E, even though the car is not available in SA.

Specific body type searches rose substantially in 2021 — by 27% to more than 102-million. This is indicative of consumers being more inclined to search for a preferred body type and it’s also influenced by more brands having released various shapes of the “same” model. For example, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Audi A3 are both available as a hatchback or sedan while the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux come in both single, extended and double-cabs.

The most searched for SUV by body type was the Toyota Fortuner, while the Toyota Hilux and BMW 3 Series were most popular in the double cab and sedan categories respectively.