South Africa’s automotive industry has long been one of the country’s most important manufacturing sectors, supporting investment, exports, jobs and an extensive local component supply chain. But the conditions underpinning that success are changing.
The global automotive industry is moving towards new-energy vehicles (NEVs), while manufacturers face changing consumer preferences, shifting trade patterns, tighter environmental requirements and growing competition from imports.
For South Africa, the challenge is not simply to keep producing vehicles. It is to determine how to protect and strengthen local manufacturing while responding to rising vehicle imports, changing consumer demand and the global shift towards NEVs – without undermining the competitiveness of the industry it is trying to support.
That raises some questions. What impact are rising new-vehicle imports and used-car sales having on local production? As consumers gain access to a wider range of imported vehicles, what does this mean for the scale and investment case for domestic manufacturing?
There is a broader policy question too. How should South Africa balance growing imports with the need to sustain local vehicle production and its component manufacturing base? What measures can support localisation without isolating the industry from global competition?
