{"id":127776,"date":"2026-03-19T04:37:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/900382734"},"modified":"2026-03-19T04:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:37:03","slug":"gwma-confirms-it-plans-to-build-vehicles-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/gwma-confirms-it-plans-to-build-vehicles-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"GWM\u00c2\u00a0confirms it plans to build vehicles in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) is weighing whether to share a manufacturing facility with another carmaker in South Africa or acquire an existing plant if available, and has held talks with Mercedes-Benz as it considers its options, regional executives said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Chinese carmakers seeking global growth have built more car factories in overseas markets to protect themselves as foreign regulators consider imposing measures against imports of Chinese-made vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have discussions with Mercedes-Benz from last year and we did also have discussions with Nissan,\u201d Kevin Li, Managing Director of GWM South Africa said during a Haval H6 plug-in hybrid SUV launch presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cContract assembly is one option. Another option is buying a plant, because (building) a new plant takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li said GWM continues to engage with multiple stakeholders on local production and plans to meet the South African government in China during the upcoming annual car show.<\/p>\n

GWM was outbid by Chinese rival Chery Automobile in using Nissan\u2019s plant in South Africa, which the maker of Tiggo SUVs agreed to buy<\/a><\/p>\n

Chief Operating Officer Conrad Groenewald said the company is still assessing which model it would produce locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a new product that we launched, a global product called codename EC15. My vote\u2019s on that one, because I think that\u2019s a better product, giving us more opportunity for localisation and for potential exports into Europe,\u201d Groenewald said.<\/p>\n

Mercedes-Benz South Africa said in an emailed response that the company\u2019s East London plant remains focused on producing the C\u2011Class and that it does not comment on speculation about future product portfolio and production planning process.<\/p>\n

It noted, however, that \u201ccustomer and market requirements are constantly changing. Mercedes-Benz strives to ensure that all its production sites remain globally competitive, are on an optimal operating point and adapted to new requirements whenever necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Mercedes-Benz South Africa CEO Andreas Brand told Reuters that the East London plant had previously produced vehicles for different brands, noting that \u201cthere\u2019s technically no reason it couldn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

GWM, with a market share of 5% in South Africa and ranked number six in vehicle sales, expanded its Haval H6 line-up with the launch of a new plug-in hybrid variant on Wednesday, hoping to capture a growing share of customers who are opting for hybrid and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s aiming to capitalise on the growing compact SUV segment, which is popular for families and has a larger share in the SUV market.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/b><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… article via LinkedIn Chinese automaker<\/span> Great Wall Motor (GWM) … a manufacturing facility with another carmaker<\/span> in South Africa or … said on Wednesday. Chinese carmakers<\/span> seeking global growth have … outbid by Chinese rival Chery Automobile<\/span> in using Nissan\u00e2\u0080\u0099s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}