Cars.co.za report offers interesting insights
Cars.co.za recently launched Industry Report 2026 at its DealerCon summit, offers insight into the forces shaping South Africa’s vehicle market.
- Dealer News
- 22 September 2026
Some industry specialists said the writing was on the wall for Nissan’s Rosslyn plant after the first rumours surfaced at the beginning of last year about a possible closure as part of the manufacturer’s global restructuring plan.
It has now been announced that Nissan will no longer be manufacturing vehicles in South Africa and that the Chinese automaker Chery will take over the plant. (https://dealerfloor.co.za/industry-news/nissan-to-sell-rosslyn-plant-to-chery)
To clarify, Nissan will no longer be a local manufacturer, but the brand and its products and services will continue as before in South Africa. All models will, going forward, be imported and there is already some new ones on its way to South Africa. (https://dealerfloor.co.za/product-news/nissan-tekton-leads-a-new-product-push-for-sa)
The Rosslyn plant was mentioned last year alongside other Nissan plants in various countries following a reported net loss of ¥671 billion, approximately R82 billion, for the fiscal year ending March 2025, as reported by Nissan Motor Corporation. Reports at the time suggested that Nissan planned to reduce its global manufacturing footprint from 17 to 10 plants, with 20 000 jobs at risk.
However, Nissan Motor Corporation responded to these reports by stating that it wanted to “clarify that this news is speculative and not based on any official company information.” (https://dealerfloor.co.za/industry-news/nissan-says-report-on-plant-sales-mere-speculation)
While some reports highlighted the risk to the Rosslyn plant in May 2025, Nissan South Africa officials said they were “conducting a detailed internal assessment” and maintained a commitment to remaining in the country, despite the ongoing global restructuring efforts.
The Rosslyn plant in Pretoria has been underutilised since the discontinuation of the NP200 bakkie in March 2024, leaving the Navara as the only locally manufactured model. Although the Navara was produced for both left and right hand drive markets, it was unable to achieve the critical volumes required to sustain profitability at the plant.
With the manufacturing facility and the Completely Knocked Down kits (CKD) operation affected, it is not known at this stage what the impact will be on Semi Knocked Down kits (SKD) exported from South Africa to Ghana in West Africa. (https://dealerfloor.co.za/industry-news/nissan-to-kick-start-skd-builds-in-ghana)
The last locally built Navaras will, in all probability, come off the production line towards the end of May this year. Like many other brands, Nissan will source the Navara from elsewhere, and it will become an imported model, similar to all other Nissan vehicles currently available in South Africa.
The fact that Chery bought the Rosslyn plant from Nissan does not come as a total surprise. The Chinese automaker previously looked at opportunities of plant sharing in South Africa.
Chery is a quickly becoming one of the top-selling brands in South Africa and also has the Jaecoo, Omoda and newly arrived Lepas nameplates in its fold locally. (https://dealerfloor.co.za/industry-news/chery-considers-plant-sharing-deals-with-sa-automakers).
Cars.co.za recently launched Industry Report 2026 at its DealerCon summit, offers insight into the forces shaping South Africa’s vehicle market.
Nissan has introduced the Tekton, a new compact SUV for the South African market. The model is built on the Renault‑Nissan alliance’s CMF‑B platform and is closely related to the Renault Duster, sharing engines and mechanical components.
At the recent DealerCon 2026, hosted by Cars.co.za automotive excellence was celebrated by honouring top executives in the automotive retails industry.
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