South Africa has a well-developed automotive industry, and is the leader in Africa in terms of production volume. The country produces more than half a million automobiles annually, of various types. While domestic development of certain vehicles, like trucks and military vehicles, does exist, most are built under license from major foreign brands.

The country has developed a particular niche and competitive advantage for manufacturing pickup trucks (bakkies), which are popular locally and are exported to foreign markets.

As of mid-2026, there are seven major companies manufacturing significant volumes of passenger vehicles in South Africa - BMW, Chery, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Other companies, such as BAIC Motor, manufacture in SA at smaller scale.

South Africa has thriving new and preowned car markets, comprising a variety of competing automotive dealerships, including branded franchises for new vehicles, and private preowned dealerships and dealer groups. Some groups maintain exclusive import rights for certain foreign vehicle brands. Major dealership groups include Motus, ROLA, Hatfield Motor Group, CFAO, Fuzion, and Super Group.

Over 500,000 new passenger vehicles and over 120,000 preowned passenger vehicles are sold in South Africa annually.

The Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) is a trade association representing the interests of the automotive retail sector, and comprises eight Constituent Associations, including the National Automobile Dealer's Association. The Independent Dealer Association (IDA) also operates in South Africa, and regulates the conduct of its members.

Numerous industry players, including manufacturers, are represented by Naamsa, South Africa's automotive business council.

The automotive industry also involves the operations of numerous large vehicle and general insurance companies, including OUTsurance, Naked, Pineapple, King Price, Santam, and Discovery, as well as quote aggregation website Hippo.

In terms of fuel, major players in South Africa are locally-headquartered Engen (SA's largest petrol station chain) and Sasol, and foreign-owned brands Astron Energy, Shell, and BP. Forecourt chains Total and Puma Energy also have a presence, albeit smaller. PetroSA is the national oil and petrol company of South Africa, and is focused on natural gas extraction and production of synthetic fuels, as well as crude oil extraction. The country has two active crude oil refineries; the Astron Energy Refinery in the Western Cape and the Natref Refinery in the Free State, which together produce (as of 2026) a combined 208,000 barrels per day. The interests of the industry in SA are represented by the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa (FIASA), of which the aforementioned companies are all members.

In 2024, the average purchase price of a new passenger vehicle in South Africa was around R400,000. In the same year, it was estimated that there were around 1,500 distinct passenger vehicle models for sale in South Africa, 1,082 of which cost over half a million rand. The price of new vehicles increased by an average of 4.7% the first quarter of 2024, with the steepest increases in the hatchback and crossover segments.

As of 2025, Toyota remains the top-selling new passenger vehicle brand in South Africa, with its best-selling model being the Corolla Cross compact SUV, which is manufactured locally. Toyota sells almost double the number of units per month than runner-up Suzuki, whose best-selling model is the Swift hatchback.

As of April 2026, crossovers are the most popular new vehicle segment, accounting for 36.9% of sales.

Both new and preowned EVs and PHEVs are becoming more available (in terms of the number of models on offer from various manufacturers), affordable, and popular in the South African market. As of 2025, the local EV industry is already worth around R3 billion, and is expected to grow steadily. Public charging infrastructure is also set to expand significantly over the coming years, with investments from the likes of BYD, Charge, and the National Automobile Association of South Africa.

History

Early days Automotives first came to South Africa in 1896 when a Benz Velo was imported and it was demonstrated on January 4 of 1897 in Pretoria in front of President Paul Kruger.

The early days of the South African motoring industry were focused on the American brands Ford and Chevrolet. In 1922 Henry Ford visited Port Elizabeth and by 1923 Ford had started the first assembly plant in PE. General Motors joined soon afterwards producing Ceves Buicks Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs.

In the mid-1960s, Ford and GM still controlled over 60% of the local car market with Ford's and Chevrolets dominating until the mid-1950s when the German and British small cars began to impact. In the early 1960s Studebaker became VW set up by managers from Ford PE who went on to develop VW- USA for the German company.

By the late 1960s, Toyota, Datsun, and Mercedes were all developing factories in SA, and British makers were being pushed out. In the late seventies, Sigma Motors had planned to merge with British Leyland, known as Leykor locally - when this merger failed, Leyland had to scramble to create an all-new dealer network in only a month. Leyland's South African presence never recovered.

The apartheid government asked Ford and GM to advise on policy to develop the local automobile component manufacturing industry. Ford and GM engineers asked to include black people in development to address chronic poverty. This was refused. However between Ford, GM and VW the three largest manufacturers (Ford about 28%, GM about 32% and VW about 15%) they accelerated local component development so rapidly that by 1968 that had destroyed Job Reservation policy in the auto industry allowing black people to work in factories previously reserved for whites.

After the fuel crisis, the large American cars which had been very popular dropped in sales drastically. By the end of the 1970s, the Mazda 323 and the Volkswagen Golf were the biggest sellers and American-designed cars were no longer regularly available. For a while, the demand for big saloons had been met by assembling the somewhat more compact Australian Fords and Holdens, but these were discontinued in favour of more compact European designs.

1976 showed the worst sales numbers since 1972. Chrysler SA went belly up soon thereafter, merging with Illings (Mazda) to form Sigma. Chrysler had been very successful in the late sixties, with the Valiant range being the most sold passenger car in 1966, 1967, and 1968, but began a serious slide after that. The acquisition of Mitsubishi gave Chrysler a stay of execution but the severe economic climate of the latter half of the 1970s proved too much.

Growth The automotive industry catered to 303,000 employees in South Africa in 2003, and in 2004 the country exported fully assembled motor vehicles to 53 countries including many developed countries such as Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, with many of the manufacturers based in South Africa now making it their main production base.

In 2004, South Africa was responsible for the manufacture of 84% of all vehicles produced in Africa, 7 million of which are on the South African roads. Also in 2004, the industry made a 6.7% contribution to the GDP of South Africa and 29% of all South African manufacturers made up the country's automotive industry. 2004 also saw 110,000 vehicles exported from South Africa of which 100,000 were passenger vehicles.

In 2007 and next years the automotive industry grew again, producing over 500,000 vehicles annually reaching peak of 616,000 in 2015. While amounting to a small fraction and 22nd place of the global vehicle production of near 100 million, this made great contributions locally, being supremely first in Africa and making up 7.5% of the country's GDP and about 10% of South Africa's manufacturing exports.

In 2010, the Naamsa, SA's automotive business council, reported that new vehicle sales exceeded their initial expectations of 7%, with large local growth allowing it to reach 24%, providing a big boost after the 2008/09 recession. This was evident in 2010 with 271,000 vehicles being exported, more than double what was seen in previous years.

Further developments

In 2025, there were reported to be a total of 115,000 individuals working in the South African automotive industry, 80,000 of whom were working in component manufacturing. At the time, the industry accounted for 22.6% of South Africa's manufacturing output, and 5.2% of its GDP. It was further reported that in 2024, the component sector exported R62.5 billion worth of goods.

The local automotive sector is guided by the South African Automotive Master Plan 2035 (SAAM), which aims to grow SA vehicle production to 1% of global output (equivalent to a total of 1.4 million vehicles), increase local content to 60%, double employment in the sector to 224,000 employees, and deepen transformation and value addition, with 25% Black-owned involvement at the Tier 2 and Tier 3 component manufacturer level.

In October 2025, Chinese automaker BYD announced that it would begin a massive rollout of its Super e-Platform fast-charge EV chargers across South Africa, starting with unveiling between 200 and 300 chargers in 2026. The new charging stations are capable of BYD's Megawatt Flash Charging, which boosts compatible EVs by 2 kilometers per 1 second of charging, and can recharge up to 400 kilometers in just 5 minutes.

Supporting 10C charging, the chargers are able to charge at over 1,000 volts, with a max output of 1,360 kW. The infrastructure will also more be environmentally-friendly than using the grid, instead making use of solar power and battery energy storage systems for the chargers.

These charging stations are already supported by BYD's Han L and Tang L models, which at the time had already started preorders in China. At the launch event for the new tech, BYD's President and Chairman Wang Chuanfu stated that, "The ultimate solution is to make charging as quick as refueling a gasoline car".

Vehicles from China are becoming more popular in South Africa, and the former's automakers are a large part of the transition to hybrids, PHEVs, and EVs. While other auto manufacturers have had doubts about South Africa's willingness to purchase new energy vehicles, Chinese manufacturers like Omoda, Chery, and BYD have launched numerous such models, even before a large-scale public charging infrastructure rollout in SA. As of 2025, there are 16 vehicle brands from China for sale in South Africa (one third of the total number of brands on sale), with another 9 on the way.

A historic month for the industry

October 2025 was a historic month for the SA automotive industry, with multiple announcements about new local vehicle construction and new brand launches, many of which were driven by Chinese automakers.

In October 2025, it was reported that the number of affordable, preowned EVs was becoming more common in the South African market. These included preowned BMW i3, GWM Ora 03 and 04, BYD Atto 3, Volvo XC40, Volvo EX30, and Mercedes EQA and EQB models. More affordable models were also being introduced into the new EV market, such as the BYD Dolphin Surf.

Also in October, it was reported that driving an EV (using exclusively electricity straight from the South African grid with home charging), equated to roughly half the cost per kilometer (using the most expensive electricity pricing) than driving a gas-powered vehicle, or better. Using data from the International Energy Agency and its own tests, news outlet MyBroadband calculated an average cost per km of fuel ranging from R1.53 to R1.60, compare to an average cost per km of electricity ranging from R0.64 to R0.80.