Thato Magasa took over the reins at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa as the new Managing Director. He succeeds Pedro Pereira, who had been in the position since 2015.
After being with the Motus Group (the holding company of Mitsubishi SA) since 2004 in various executive roles, including Managing Director of SsangYong and Daihatsu, Pedro has moved to the C2 Technology Group as Chief Operating Officer.
As the new Mitsubishi MD, Thato is no stranger to the automotive industry. He has worked in various roles within the Motus Group since he first joined the company in 2009.
Following a short break in 2012, he returned to the Motus Group holding various roles at Mitsubishi Motors South Africa, including that of Operations Manager, and he then moved to another senior role within the Motus Group – this time at Renault South Africa.
Prior to this, Thato had been the General Manager for Sales at Renault SA, after completing a 12-month development programme within the Renault Group. He also holds a B-Com Accounting degree and acquired his MBA at GIBS, South Africa.
“Having spent a large part of my career working at challenger brands, I have always found that it is undoubtedly the people within the organisation who make the difference.
“I am highly passionate about the continuous development of people towards the achievement of organisational goals. Our end goal is to offer a consistently high-quality retail and ownership experience of our vehicles, which will be heavily reliant on our people – both within Mitsubishi Motors SA and the dealer network at large, Thato says.”
Mitsubishi Motors has revived the Pajero name with the launch of the fifth generation Pajero Cross Country. The new model does not simply replace the previous Pajero that disappeared from the market in 2021. Its relationship with the Pajero Sport is equally important, particularly for markets such as South Africa.
Range Rover, long regarded as the original luxury SUV, has introduced its first electric model. The vehicle is built at the Solihull plant in the UK, where Range Rover production has taken place since 1970.
Audi South Africa has introduced the new Q5 range, comprising the third-generation Q5 SUV, second-generation Q5 Sportback, and the performance-focused SQ5 SUV and SQ5 Sportback. The range is built on Audi's Premium Platform Combustion and brings a new generation of petrol and diesel engines to the nameplate.
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