Chery officially opened its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, on July 3, 2026. Credit: Chery
- The plant is slated to begin production in mid-2027, with an annual capacity of 50,000 units on a single shift once fully ramped up.
- Chery ranked second in South Africa by sales in the first five months of this year, trailing only Toyota.
Chery Auto (HKEX: 9973) officially inaugurated its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, on Friday, marking the Chinese top auto exporter’s transition from an importer to a local manufacturer in the country.
The plant was originally built in 1963. Chery announced in January this year that it would acquire the plant’s land, buildings and related assets from Nissan, including a nearby stamping facility.
Chery South Africa has pledged to retain all 692 existing employees at the plant, and expects to create nearly 3,000 jobs across the supply chain.
The plant will undergo a comprehensive upgrade and is scheduled to begin production in the middle of next year. Once fully ramped up, its annual capacity will reach 50,000 units on a single shift, according to a statement on Saturday.
Chery said it has launched an extensive localization program, aiming to achieve an initial localization rate of 40% by 2028.
South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng, and Chery chairman Yin Tongyue attended the inauguration ceremony.
Guided by the philosophy of “In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere,” Chery will strive to integrate into the local economy and community wherever it invests and in every market it enters, Yin said at the ceremony.
Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the South African plant. Credit: Chery
Chery plans to build the Rosslyn plant into a comprehensive automotive hub integrating R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, skills training and export operations, and to use it as a starting point to develop South Africa into its regional operations center for southern Africa.
Nissan previously said that external factors had affected the Rosslyn plant’s utilization rate and its future viability within the Nissan system.
In recent years, the plant’s annual output had remained below 25,000 units, well short of the 54,000 units produced in 2012.
Since entering the South African market in 2021, Chery has become one of the fastest-growing auto brands in the country.
In the first five months of this year, Chery Group ranked second in South Africa by sales across the industry, behind only Toyota, according to the company’s statement.
Chery has built a complete brand portfolio in South Africa, including Chery, Omoda & Jaecoo, Jetour, iCaur and Lepas, covering gasoline, hybrid and battery electric models.
Among them, the Jetour T2 became the first Chinese-brand vehicle to win South Africa’s overall Car of the Year award in 2026, while Omoda has recorded cumulative sales of more than 20,000 units since its launch in 2023.
With the Rosslyn plant now operational, Chery has for the first time established a full industrial chain ecosystem in Africa, spanning passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, smart agricultural machinery, green solar energy, mineral resources, robotics and the circular economy.
Chery also announced that it will launch cooperation projects in key nature conservation areas in South Africa under its global partnership framework with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Chery Auto sold 2,631,381 vehicles in 2025, up 8% year on year, and exported 1,344,020 vehicles for the full year, an increase of 17.4 percent.
Nissan announced its Sunderland plant in the UK will contract manufacture passenger vehicles for Chery in fiscal 2027.
