Opinion| Urgent action needed on vehicle industry as reform momentum shows mixed progress

By Busi Mavuso

There are life-and-death decisions that government must make about our vehicle industry, one of the most important parts of our industrial base. It is facing a bleak future as cheap imports flood the market.

BMW South Africa CEO Peter van Binsbergen said last week that one in three vehicles sold today is produced locally. Twenty-five years ago, over 80% were locally produced. Local vehicle production has stagnated below pre-Covid levels of 640 000 units a year.

Even those still produced locally are seeing declining proportions of local content, with the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (Naacam) reporting an average annual decline of about 1.1 percentage points over the past 25 years.

The component sector has been particularly hard hit.

Naacam reports that 13 component manufacturers have closed in the last three years, with more closures expected this year. This destruction of manufacturing capacity represents not