The South African Vehicle Industry

As the largest manufacturing sector in South Africa’s economy, vehicle and component production accounted for 33% of South Africa’s manufacturing output in 2016, while the contribution of the broader automotive industry to GDP was 7.4%; 4.7% for manufacturing and 2.7% for retail. Although the new vehicle market generated approximately R233bn in 2016, new vehicle sales recorded a year-on-year decline for the third year in succession. This has been attributed to the slowdown in the domestic economy, above average inflationary pressures in the new vehicle market and increases in interest rates.

Importance of the Export Market

In 2016 the country exported a record number of 344,859 vehicles up from 333,802 vehicles in 2015. The value of all automotive exports accounted for R171.1bn, which equates to 15.6% of total South African exports across all sectors. Passenger car exports comprised 70.8% of passenger car production with 237,715 passenger cars exported. The total value of automotive component exports reached R53bn with catalytic converters accounting for 41.3% of all component exports by value, earning R21.9bn, compared to R20.3bn in 2015.

Report Coverage

The detailed report on the South African Vehicle Industry provides an overview of the sector, outlines current conditions and discusses factors that influence the success of the industry including Government support in the form of the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP) and other initiatives. The report profiles 142 companies active in the manufacture of components and vehicles, as well as importers, retailers, vehicle repair and auto salvage companies. Included are multinationals BMW, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen which have all either announced or completed multibillion-Rand additions to their existing South African assembly operations in the past two years. Also profiled is General Motors South Africa, which in May 2017 announced its decision to disinvest from South Africa and stop the manufacture and sales of the Chevrolet brand in the domestic market.