WITH the elections done and dusted, Mzansi has other reasons to celebrate and be proud of.
One of them is the boom in the local motor industry, a major boost for the economy and job creation.
And because Mzansi love cars!
Several major car manufacturers produce cars locally. These include BMW, Isuzu, Toyota, Ford, Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Volkswagen. , Production facility: Struandale, Port-Elizabeth, Isuzu Motors – Isuzu announced in 2017 that it was purchasing the General Motors plant in Mzansi, when the American carmaker (who was producing products for Isuzu) called it quits.
Under the Isuzu brand, the company continues to produce the legendary D-Max bakkie (previously KB) as well as medium and heavy-duty trucks. , Mahindra officially opened its assembly facility in May last year and has since produced the entire range of Pik Up models locally.While it has reached full production capacity for the first phase of the facility, it has the capacity to offer unique and custom models for South African bakkie enthusiasts , Production facility: Durban, Mercedes-Benz – Mercedes-Benz has a rich heritage in the country and has been building vehicles here for the past 71 years.
Last month, the 500 000th C-Class rolled off the line at the company’s East London plant.
The C-Class is produced in significant number for the domestic market, and exports happen to be to more than 80 markets around the world., Production facility: East London, Toyota – The Toyota Hilux has been a bedrock of the South African bakkie production for decades and is a major enabler of smaller component supplier business in the greater Durban area.Toyota invested R6,1 bn to establish tooling and a local supply chain for assembly of the current eight-generation Hilux and Fortuner models in South Africa., Production Facility: Prospecton, Durban, Ford – Ford builds Ranger bakkies for both local and international markets.Ford is to expand domestic operations soon with the assembly of its high-performance Raptor variant of the Ranger. , Production facility: Uithenhage, Eastern Cape, Volkswagen – For generations, Volkswagen has been a strong force in the economy with a state-of-the-art production plant in Uithenhage, Eastern Cape. The first Beettle rolled off the line on 31 August 1951 and today the German carmaker produces the Polo Vivo and current Polo models there. It also exports the Polo to several right-hand-drive countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. ,Production facility: Rosslyn, Pretoria, BMW – Since sport utility vehicles are becoming popular, BMW ended local production of the BMW 3 series Sedan and started building the third-generation X3 in South Africa.
Naturally, it’s for local sales but the majority of X3s are being exported to right-hand-drive markets around the globe., Nissan – The only local manufacturer to build two different bakkies (NP200 and NP300). They’ll soon add the Navara as the third bakkie to their local production.
With this, Nissan SA will become a production hub for African and world markets.
