South Africa’s vehicle manufacturers: outside looking in?

South Africa, long home to German and Japanese vehicle companies’ only major factories in Africa, is soon likely to be overtaken by Morocco as the continent’s pre-eminent vehicle producing nation. While Stellantis and Renault are increasing their Moroccan factories’ capacity to 400,000 units a year, vehicle output in South Africa is falling, and the roles of those plants are changing in their owners’ global strategies. South African production totalled slightly more than 602,000 units in 2023 but is expected to fall to around 526,000 in 2024.