{"id":857760,"date":"2026-04-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=857760"},"modified":"2026-04-21T06:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:55:32","slug":"r600-billion-indian-giant-plans-upgrade-for-south-african-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/857760\/r600-billion-indian-giant-plans-upgrade-for-south-african-factory\/","title":{"rendered":"R600 billion Indian giant plans upgrade for South African factory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mahindra is at an advanced stage of assessing plans to upgrade its South African plant to capitalise on the rising demand for affordable vehicles in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahindra is India\u2019s second-largest automaker with a market capitalisation of about 3.8 trillion rupees (over R600 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloomberg reported that the company has been working with the Industrial Development Corporation to assess the feasibility of introducing completely knocked-down (CKD) production at its facility near Durban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to people familiar with the discussions, the talks remain private, and representatives for both organisations did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahindra currently assembles semi-knocked-down (SKD) vehicles at its Durban plant. This involves importing largely pre-assembled components for final assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a shift to CKD manufacturing would mark a significant step up, allowing for more extensive local production processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will also help the company avoid import tariffs under consideration by the government to boost domestic manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes as competition has intensified in South Africa\u2019s mid-market vehicle segment, with Indian and Chinese brands gaining ground against established players such as Ford Motor Company and Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expanding local production could also strengthen Mahindra\u2019s position against rivals like Chery and Suzuki, while Toyota remains the country\u2019s top-selling brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renai Moothilal, CEO and executive director of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (Naacam), said Mahindra\u2019s rapid rise locally makes further investment a natural progression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is clear that there\u2019s a very strong domestic consumer appetite for their products, and Mahindra\u2019s been assembling vehicles in the SKD facility in KZN for about six or seven years now,\u201d he said in an interview with The Money Show<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the company\u2019s consistent ranking among South Africa\u2019s top 10 best-selling brands reinforces the case for expansion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naacam has been involved in discussions with Mahindra as it evaluates more advanced production models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy own organisation has been in several consultations with them over the years where they look to investigate how they can get to what we call CKD manufacturing and deepen the supplier base,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good news for jobs in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The impact on employment is particularly notable. \u201cIf I could just put it in job terms, a CKD plant tends to support eight jobs for every one that you find in an SKD plant,\u201d Moothilal said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also highlighted broader gains if Mahindra pulls the trigger on the expansion. \u201cWith CKD, you get skills, technology, and a host of new, smaller business entrant opportunities, which is vital in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been investigating with Mahindra for a period now, and I think they should, by the end of this year, have some conclusion on where they\u2019re going to take the CKD plans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also addressed concerns about growing competition from newer entrants. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a risk if they are coming in, particularly from a production perspective,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he warned about rising imports. \u201cOne thing is absolutely clear, and that is that South Africa has become very attractive for fully imported vehicles. Last year, we had a vehicle import penetration of close to 70%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that this trend poses a long-term threat. \u201cWhat is actually a risk is having a long-term import dominance in the market,\u201d Moothilal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, deeper local manufacturing could strengthen the industry. \u201cWhen these companies engage in deep manufacturing here in the country, they set up and make use of a component or supplier base as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India\u2019s second-largest automaker is at an advanced stage of assessing plans to upgrade its South African plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":857767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[15796,853],"class_list":["post-857760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-mahindra","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857760","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857769,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857760\/revisions\/857769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}