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# The Pretoria plant Nissan stopped using will start building Chinese Omodas from mid-2027
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/the-pretoria-plant-nissan-stopped-using-will-start-building-chinese-omodas-from-mid-2027/
- Published: 2026-10-23T03:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:59:59.000Z
- Description: Chery has named the Omoda C4 as one of the cars it will build at Rosslyn, but has not said what it is investing, how many jobs it brings or what the car will cost.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

The Rosslyn plant outside Pretoria opened in 1963, which makes it one of the longest-running car factories in the country. Nissan stopped assembling vehicles in South Africa as part of a global restructuring, and Chery, the Chinese car group, bought the plant from it earlier this year.

Now the new owner has put a name to one of the cars it will build there. The Omoda C4, a crossover first shown overseas as the C3, will be made at Rosslyn in petrol, hybrid and fully electric versions. That gives buyers a choice to suit different preferences and different access to charging.

It will not be alone on the line. Cars.co.za reports that the C4 is one of several models planned for Rosslyn, and back in July Chery named the Tiggo 4 as the plant's first. Moneyweb, working from the company's own information, calls the C4 Chery's first South African-built model, so the running order has not been settled in public.

## What Chery has said, and what it has not

The timetable is the firmest part. Chery has said it will upgrade the plant's facilities and utilities first, with production starting around mid-2027 and 15,000 vehicles planned for the plant during the ramp-up in the third and fourth quarters of that year. Alongside that runs a localisation programme, which means buying more of each car's parts from South African suppliers instead of shipping them in.

Then there is the list nobody has put a number on. The size of the investment, how many C4s Chery expects to make and how many jobs the project could support were all left out of the information it provided. Final specifications, prices and a launch date are only due closer to the car's local launch.

## Why Chery wants a factory at all

Until now, Omoda and Jaecoo have only sold imported cars here. "Investing in local production is a decision about the kind of business we want Omoda & Jaecoo to become in South Africa," said Shannon Gahagan, head of brand and marketing at Omoda & Jaecoo South Africa. Chery's founder, Yin Tongyue, put it more simply in July: the group has moved "from being an importer to a manufacturer".

Mid-2027 is less than a year away, which is not long to upgrade a plant that stopped making cars, and Chery has yet to say what a Rosslyn-built C4 will cost.