We must not mock the scale of South Africa’s automotive industry and, as the sector seeks to return to pre-crisis activity levels, this list builds confidence.
Join us to inventory brands with production operations and meetings in our country.
1. BAIC
Substantial investment and media exaggeration in 2015 indicated that China’s International Automotive Corporation (BAIC) would have wonderful potential. Class. The logo that was intended to start generating cars at your Port Elizabeth plant last year. We cannot check if there is any activity in the plant at this stage. A disappointing way to start this list, but we move in alphabetical order.
2. BMW
Our country has a very special dating with the Bavarian brand, and much of this mythical history revolves around the construction of its operations in Rosslyn, Tshwane. Opened in 1973, it was the first BMW factory to be established outdoors in Germany. Series five (E12); five generations of the outstanding Series 3 and now the X3. Of course, we can’t get the many special edition versions that have emerged from their skunkworks, particularly for our market, such as the five30 MLE, 733i, 333i and 32fiveiS. Do you know that they also gathered some examples from Series 8 (E31)?
3. Ford
Blue Oval has two primary plants in SA. The first is its engine factory in Struandale, Port Elizabeth, which first opened in 1964. According to the brand, it has an annual capacity of 250,000 kits of machined components, adding chambers, blocks and vibranquins. And then there’s the Silverton reunion operation, created in 1967 and which lately houses one of the top iconic plates on the market: the Ranger van.
4. Hyundai
In 2014, the South Korean automaker set up a meeting plant on Gauteng’s East Rand. The Benoni plant assembles the EX8 into Hyundai’s advertising vehicle portfolio, basically for local consumption, while a small proportion (20%) exports to neighbouring countries such as Namibia and Botswana. The company invested 110 million rand in the creation of the company.
5th Isuzu
The company, which now belongs to the Isuzu brand, was part of the General Motors (GM) conglomerate when operating in South Africa. After retiring from the market in 2017, this plant in Struandale, Port Elizabeth was sold to Isuzu, the company Manufacturing the D-Max Van was a component of its service as for decades even before that, because Isuzu was once part of the GM team. The plant also gave birth to the Opel Corsa Utility, which has become the utility Chevrolet. The D-Max, the Isuzu plant now assembles various heavy truck models.
6. Mahindra
Yes, the Indian logo does more for South Africa than the Karoo versions of its robust Pik-Up. In 2018, opened a meetinghouse in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Il is guilty of setting up the Pik-Up series, either in the form of a double and single cabin. It has a maximum annual capacity of 4,000 vehicles. At the time of installation, the company stated that it planned up to 40% of the parts locally.
Seventh Mercedes-Benz
In 1958, a company called Car Distributors Assembly (CDA) won its first order from Daimler-Benz AG to join Mercedes-Benz cars and, since then, models with three-pointed stars have continued to come out of East London production. By 1984, Daimler-Benz had acquired more than 50. 1% of CDA and by 1998 had completed operations when Mercedes-Benz South Africa was officially created, as a wholly state-owned subsidiary of the parent company. his number one millionth model. It all started with the round-eyed W121. The timeline also included the W114, the mythical W123 and even the Class S of the W126 generation, a special red example of which was made through the workers of our beloved Nelson Mandela. The factory now manufactures Class C models for local admission and export.
Eighth Nissan
Nissan is recently building the NP200 and NP300 at its Rosslyn plant, Tshwane. Plans are underway to start production of Navara since 2021, a resolution that has been delayed several times. This factory dates back to 1964. agreements over the decades, the factory’s production line has also noticed the encounter of cars from other brands, this includes Peugeot, Rambler (deceased), as well as Fiat and Alfa Romeo. More recently, the first generation of the Renault Sandero was assembled here.
Ninth Toyota
The Japanese giant established production operations at its Prospecton plant, KwaZulu-Natal in 1972. This plant is now to blame for Hilux, Fortuner, Corolla Quest and Hiace. Plans to take a step towards long-term electrification by producing a new hybrid model. , the main points of which have not yet been confirmed. Hino trucks are also manufactured in Prospecton.
10. Volkswagen
In 2016, Volkswagen celebrated its 65th year of vehicle production in SA. To commemorate this milestone, he said more than 6. 5 million cars had left the production line at his Uitenhage plant in Port Elizabeth in its six-and-a-half decade operation. Currently, it produces here the Polo and the Polo Vivo, two cars that do not require any presentation, given their prestige as bestsellers.