Lately there are 16 separate car models manufactured through major car brands in South Africa.
After the crises of 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the local productive industry recovered and deployed more than half a million new cars last year.
According to the South African National Automobile Manufacturers Association (Naamsa), vehicle production contributed 2. 4% of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 and generated more than 110,000 jobs.
Many cars made in South Africa are local sellers, with the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux and Volkswagen Polo in addition, supporting the additional 1. 9% of GDP generated through retail vehicle sales.
While the first imported and amateur-built cars landed on the roads of South Africa in the nineteenth century, professionally manufactured cars gave the impression soon after.
Ford, the first company to open a vehicle meeting plant in South Africa.
Its original local factory opened in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) in 1924, almost a century ago. He made one of the world’s most prominent first production cars: the Ford Model T.
Two years later, General Motors opened its first plant in the country, starting with the Chevrolet AA Series. He followed with a Chrysler plant on Paarden Island, near Cape Town, in 1941.
Another notable early market entry was Volkswagen (VW), which first manufactured its hugely popular Beetle at the South Africa Motor Assemblers and Distributors (Samad) plant in Uitenhage (now Kariega) in 1951.
Samad was later renamed Volkswagen of South Africa before being fully acquired through the Volkswagen Group.
South Africa’s first production car, the Protea two-seater sports engine, introduced in 1957.
Resources disagree on the exact number of fabrications, but agree that they are very few. Only 14 or 26 sets of this vehicle rolled off the production line.
The country has been much more successful assembling globally fashionable cars from well-established brands.
Although General Motors and Chrysler no longer operate in local plants, other heavyweights that settled after Ford and VW were:
Of the 555,889 manufactured in South Africa, 351,785 were exported for sale elsewhere.
But South Africa’s vehicle production faces imminent risk due to the shift from internal combustion cars to new power cars (NEVs) in major export markets.
Toyota and Mercedes Benz are lately the corporations that manufacture NEV models in South Africa.
Toyota manufactures the Corolla Cross and Mercedes-Benz manufactures plug-in hybrid versions for export of the C-Class.
However, Europe is about to abandon all types of petrol or diesel engines over the next decade, so brands will want to be able to make fully electric cars.
Among the brands represented locally, BMW is the company that expresses interest in producing electric models in the country.
The company, which operates a plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria, recently told The Sunday Times in talks with the South African government regarding an electric vehicle (EV) policy.
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel recently said the government would finalise the policy before the end of 2023.
It deserves to provide a roadmap for local EV production and the eventual break or elimination of taxes on EV imports.
Below are the 16 cars lately in South Africa and the factories where they are manufactured.
BMW Ford Headline Hyundai Isuzu Mahindra Mercedes-Benz National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) Nissan Toyota Volkswagen
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