Lepas L4 Embarks on its South African journey
A new chapter begins as the first Lepas L4 vehicles depart Port Taicang in China, bound for South Africa.
- Product News
- 2 February 2026
Business at Ford’s manufacturing plant in Silverton Pretoria is getting back to normal but the risk of interrupted power supply remains, Ford says.
The problems arose when overhead powerlines collapsed over the N4 on 10 April after a huge storm that left large parts of Pretoria, especially in the eastern part of the city, without electricity. This included the Ford plant and related industries in the Ford supply chain.
Production was suspended on 11 April and restored in stages starting on the evening of April 12, when production has slowly resumed.
The estimated total loss of production during the down days was 1 440 units. and a dark picture of the impact of the shutdown for an extended period was sketched by Ford Africa’s president, Neale Hill.
Ford tells Dealerfloor that the scale of the Eskom infrastructure concern holds the risk of interrupted supply. “However, we continue to liaise with Eskom and local government as they work to balance the system and fully restore the network.”
The newly upgraded Silverton plant is currently the second largest in the world producing the new generation Ford Ranger as well as the Volkswagen Amarok, both for local consumption and export to more than 100 markets. More than 700 Ranger pick-ups are manufactured in Pretoria every day utilising three shifts working at the plant.
A new chapter begins as the first Lepas L4 vehicles depart Port Taicang in China, bound for South Africa.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition has renewed calls for stronger localisation, expanded job creation and deeper transformation in South Africa’s automotive industry after reviewing progress on the South African Automotive Industry Master Plan 2035.
As economic pressures and market volatility continue to shape the local transport industry, UD Trucks Southern Africa says it has demonstrated confident and stable growth, supported by strong retail partnerships and a relentless focus on customer uptime.
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Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition has renewed calls for stronger localisation, expanded job creation and deeper transformation in South Africa’s automotive industry after reviewing progress on the South African Automotive Industry Master Plan 2035.
As economic pressures and market volatility continue to shape the local transport industry, UD Trucks Southern Africa says it has demonstrated confident and stable growth, supported by strong retail partnerships and a relentless focus on customer uptime.
Keyloop, a global automotive technology company, has signed an agreement to acquire Motortech.ai, a United Kingdom-based (UK) developer of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the automotive industry.