28/01/2026
Below is an interesting read which we’ve shortened. Afterwards, have a look at the picture we’ve combined. Same Same? 🤔
Let us know your thoughts:
The South African motor industry, which has been fairly stagnant for the past several years, had a booming 2025, with domestic vehicle sales up 15.7% to 597 014 units and built-up vehicle exports increasing by 15.9% to 414 268 units. It was also satisfying to see exports of built-up vehicles into the rest of Africa jump by 37% to 35 728 units.
However, there are two disappointing facts in the statistics. The first is that imports of built-up vehicles, mainly from India and China, were up 29% on the figure for 2024. The second point of concern was growth of only 1.6% in local vehicle production, increasing from 600 171 units in 2024 to 609 974 last year.
Soon after the detailed automotive industry data for 2025 was released, there was a major announcement that gave a significant boost to confidence in the future of the industry in South Africa. This was the announcement that Chery was finalising a deal to buy Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Rosslyn. This includes the adjacent stamping plant (formerly Steelmobile), signalling that Chery intends to become involved in a CKD (completely knocked down) operation, rather than making use of simpler and far less investment-intensive SKD (semi-knocked down) assembly, as had been expected by some industry commentators.
This Chery–Nissan development ties in with the current major upheaval in the global automotive industry, with several established vehicle makers cutting back on manufacturing plants while Chinese manufacturers expand internationally. One of the objectives of this expansion beyond China’s borders is to build cars that will not attract punishing tariffs when entering certain markets, such as the European Union.
Nissan, which is on a major global cost-cutting programme, announced last year that it was closing seven of its plants, with Rosslyn the last to be identified. The demise of Nissan as a local manufacturer is sad, as its South African history stretches back 60 years, when it began producing Datsun cars and bakkies. It was also one of the pioneers of vehicle manufacturing in the Rosslyn industrial hub, along with Fiat, which began assembly there in 1966.
Chery, on the other hand, is rapidly expanding globally. China’s leading vehicle exporter has already purchased Nissan’s plant in Spain and appears to be positioning itself to also manufacture vehicles in underutilised Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plants in the United Kingdom.
Chery and JLR have a 50:50 independent joint-venture operation in China, established in 2012, with a new Land Rover Freelander currently under development. This model is being built on the platform of a Chery battery electric vehicle (BEV), so the potential use of unused capacity in JLR plants in the UK to build Chery vehicles makes strategic sense.
The Nissan–Chery deal could well be the forerunner of similar agreements by other Chinese brands in South Africa. These could involve outright buyouts, as in the case of the Nissan plant, or the establishment of joint ventures to share manufacturing facilities with existing local vehicle manufacturers.
These global deals by Chinese motor companies to take over existing manufacturing facilities make sense, as they enable production to commence far more quickly than would be possible with a greenfield development.eed
