What Nissan Selling to Chery Says About South Africa's Auto Future
When Nissan confirmed in January 2026 that it had agreed to sell its Rosslyn manufacturing facility in Pretoria to China's Chery, the headlines focused on the transaction itself.
They should have been focused on what it represents: sixty years of Japanese industrial presence in South Africa, quietly folded into the expanding footprint of Chinese automotive ambition.
The Rosslyn plant opened in 1966.
At its peak it was the kind of anchor investment that shaped local supply chains, employed thousands, and signalled that South Africa was a credible destination for long-horizon industrial capital.
By 2024, output had fallen to roughly 17,000 units annually.
The discontinuation of the NP200 bakkie in 2023 left the Navara as the facility's sole model.
That is not a manufacturing base.
That is a holding pattern.
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