Chery has just become a South African carmaker. On Friday, the fast-rising Chinese brand officially opened the Rosslyn plant in Pretoria, taking over a factory that Nissan had occupied for nearly 60 years. For a company that only entered the local market in 2021, it is a striking leap from importing cars to building them here. "We have moved from being an importer to a manufacturer, and it is a key milestone in our global journey," said Chery Automobile chairman Yin Tongyue at the launch.
What Chery is promising
Chery is keeping all 692 people who already worked at the plant, and expects to create nearly 3,000 direct and indirect jobs across manufacturing and its supply chain. It has pledged "hundreds of millions of US dollars" to upgrade the site, though it won't say what it paid Nissan, calling the price a commercial secret. The first vehicles are due in mid-2027, starting with a 15,000-unit ramp-up and building toward 50,000 a year, with a longer-term ambition of 100,000 annual sales in South Africa. The Tiggo Cross, Jaecoo J5 and Jetour T-Series will be built first, and Chery is aiming for up to 40% of its parts to come from local suppliers. Executives say the long-term goal is to turn Rosslyn into a "complete autocentre" with research, supply chain and training.
Why it matters
The move lands in a market Chinese brands are reshaping fast. They now make up nearly one in five new cars sold in South Africa, and Chery has already climbed to become the country's second-biggest passenger brand. It is the third Chinese carmaker to start building locally, after BAIC and Foton. At the launch, attended by around 350 guests including Deputy President Paul Mashatile, Mashatile called the takeover "a vote of confidence in our people, our institutions, our infrastructure" and said it reinforced South Africa's role as an automotive gateway to Africa. The scale of Chery's global push is hard to miss: in the first half of 2026 the group exported 944,000 vehicles from China, a 71.5% jump on a year earlier.
Rosslyn has been building cars since 1963. The real test now is whether Chery's arrival delivers lasting local jobs and suppliers, or simply puts a new badge on an old production line.
