{"id":779894,"date":"2024-07-08T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=779894"},"modified":"2024-07-08T07:37:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T05:37:37","slug":"five-big-car-brands-that-kissed-south-africa-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/779894\/five-big-car-brands-that-kissed-south-africa-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"Five big car brands that kissed South Africa goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the last decade, many top car brands have abandoned South Africa, including Datsun, Dodge, Chrysler, Chevrolet, and Daihatsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African economy and automotive industry can help explain why these prominent brands decided to withdraw from the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s automotive industry is one of the country\u2019s largest economic sectors, contributing 4.3% to the country\u2019s gross domestic product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years, several global automotive manufacturers have expanded their operations in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BMW announced that it will exclusively manufacture the next-generation BMW X3 at its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ford has invested R15.8 billion investment in its local manufacturing operations, while Nissan has invested R3 billion to build its new Navara bakkie at its plant in Pretoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Toyota invested R6.1 billion to expand the production of its Hilux and Fortuner models at its plant in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to be outdone, Volkswagen earmarked R4.5 billion for new models and infrastructure at its Uitenhage factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing Automobile International Corporation also invested R11 billion in a vehicle manufacturing plant in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, four of these brands, Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan, and Ford, sell most cars in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) May 2024 industry new vehicle sales report provided more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It showed that Toyota sold 8,795 cars in South Africa in May, followed by Volkswagen with 4,939, Suzuki with 4,101, and Ford with 2,860.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most popular vehicle in South Africa is the Toyota Hilux, followed by the Ford Ranger and the Toyota Corolla Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult for an international motoring brand to break into the South African market, as people have strong loyalty to locally manufactured car brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s poor economic growth and challenging business environment further complicated matters for car brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, therefore, unsurprising that many international motoring brands could not make it work in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ones who made it work, like Suzuki, Hyundai, Chery, and GWM, typically focus on affordable alternatives to the established brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Car brands like Saab and Cadillac, which target middle-class and rich clients, could not compete with Toyota, BMW, and Ford in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two international car brands left South Africa in 2010, followed by many others over the last ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a look at prominent vehicle brands which have left the country since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Daihatsu \u2013 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Japanese brand, Daihatsu was known for producing reliable and affordable small-format cars for high-density urban environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This produced small hatches like the Charade and Sirion, and the Terios, in its time, was a popular model in the compact SUV market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daihatsu\u2019s announcement that it would leave South Africa in 2015 came after similar news that the brand had left its other right-hand-drive markets in New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Chevrolet \u2013 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chevrolet relaunched in South Africa in 1997 and remained in the country for 20 years before its parent company, GM, began phasing out of the local market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GM sold its minority stake in Isuzu and handed over local operations, which purchased the company\u2019s light commercial manufacturing plant outside Gqeberha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chevrolet said the lack of return on investment forced it to withdraw from South Africa and that it would re-prioritize its efforts to markets in the USA and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Dodge and Chrysler \u2013 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Parent company Fiat Chrysler announced in 2017 that it would discontinue sales of two of its brands, Chrysler and Dodge, in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was attributed to the American manufacturers ceasing production of vehicles for right-hand-drive markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales continued for the brands until stock was depleted, and after-sale support continued at Fiat dealerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Datsun \u2013 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Datsun re-entered South Africa in 2014, introducing its affordable Go hatchback car to the local market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in 2022, the company announced that it would withdraw from South Africa and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parent company Nissan had said that the move was part of a wider transformation strategy, and it was not explicitly confirmed that Datsun would be forever discontinued in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: 13 cars that get hijacked the most in South Africa in 2024<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many top car brands have abandoned South Africa over the last decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":779897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[10477,2043,13876,12418,2041,6636,9547],"class_list":["post-779894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-chevrolet","tag-chrysler","tag-datsun","tag-dodge","tag-toyota","tag-volkswagen","tag-vw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779894"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781289,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779894\/revisions\/781289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}