{"id":851435,"date":"2026-02-19T08:26:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=851435"},"modified":"2026-02-19T08:27:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:27:42","slug":"biggest-car-dealership-in-south-africa-responds-to-chinese-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/851435\/biggest-car-dealership-in-south-africa-responds-to-chinese-siege\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest car dealership in South Africa responds to Chinese siege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s largest car dealer is expanding its brand lineup to boost revenue, as the country\u2019s motor industry is reshaped by rising competition from Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motus Retail, a unit of Motus Holdings Ltd. is expanding its portfolio to include Haval, Honda, Suzuki, Tata and Mahindra to capture a larger share of a market that has been upended by the explosive growth of new car makers, most notably from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe learn, we debate, and then when we are in a position to, we leverage our routes to market solutions to secure the right emerging brands,\u201d Motus South Africa Retail Chief Executive Officer Gideon Jansen van Rensburg said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company, which has around 20% of the South African new passenger car market, represents 38 brands via over 300 dealerships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising costs and slower revenue growth prompted it to retrench 67 staff last year, with top managers taking pay cuts of up to 30%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese manufacturers have moved from being a marginal market presence in 2019 to top-tier competitors, according to data from South Africa\u2019s Automotive Business Council, with sales turbocharged by a combination of affordability, competitive quality and design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., one of China\u2019s biggest vehicle manufacturers whose brands include Chery, Jetour, Omoda and Jaecoo, is now ranked the\u00a0third biggest<\/a>\u00a0seller in South Africa, relegating Volkswagen AG to fourth place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motus wants to tap shifts in consumer preferences away from legacy brands like BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz AG, VW, and Toyota Motor Corp. toward newer manufacturers, which offer cars with the latest technology at a fraction of the price of their old-line rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to make sure we are well represented in the new emerging market,\u201d Van Rensburg said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut also bearing in mind that we have legacy brands that are doing very well, and we have to make sure our dealerships are right-sized to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has acquired the Penta Menlyn dealership in Pretoria, the capital, which has the Suzuki, Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo brands on site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has also secured its first dealership with India\u2019s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and is deepening its ties with China\u2019s Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd., including a recent acquisition of a third Haval dealership in George in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are talking to other stakeholders about increasing our foothold in emerging brands,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to be diversified across all the brands that we can represent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motus Retail is expanding its brand lineup to boost revenue, as the country\u2019s motor industry is reshaped by rising competition from Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":848392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[15804],"class_list":["post-851435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-motus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851435","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851437,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851435\/revisions\/851437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}