Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) aims for the new Fortuner and Hilux assembly lines at its Prospecton plant, in Durban, to ramp up to full production this month.

The group invested R6.1-billion to produce the new models, which were launched onto the local market earlier this year.

TSAM manufactures five models at its plant, namely the Hilux bakkie, the Fortuner sports utility vehicle, the Corolla sedan, the Corolla Quest sedan and the Quantum minibus. The company also produces Hino and Dyna model trucks from semi-knockdown kits.

“Preparation for this project has been intense over the last four years,” says TSAM president and CEO Andrew Kirby.

Assembly of the new Hilux and Fortuner, which share a platform, will reach 550 vehicles a day once full production is reached.

Durban will be the second-largest Hilux and Fortuner plant in the global Toyota group, after the Thailand site.

Increased Local Content
TSAM’s Fortuner and Hilux investment represents the biggest single investment made in the plant to date.

Of the R6.1-billion, R1.9-billion related to supplier tooling, R1.4-billion to in-house tooling and the balance to in-house facilities and buildings to cater for new press machines.

TSAM’s in-house component plants also had to undergo some major revamps, with the ladder frame or chassis plant producing a newly designed chassis, which is regarded as a unique selling point of the new models.

New facilities were also installed for the manufacture of a variety of other in-house components, including a new instrument panel, exhaust assembly, brake and clutch assembly, rear bumper reinforcement, catalytic converter, rear and front axle assemblies, as well as painted resin front bumpers.

While the previous Hilux and Fortuner models had around 1 500 local parts, this number has grown to 2 700 parts for the new models.

“Our future depends on localisation,” notes TSAM manufacturing support group senior VP Nigel Ward.

Toyota’s component suppliers invested R1.7-billion to produce the new models.

The project also attracted five new inter-national suppliers, while creating around 2 000 new jobs in the supply chain. This added to the 557 new jobs that have been created on the TSAM assembly line.

Best-Selling Vehicle
The Hilux is South Africa’s best-selling one-ton bakkie, a distinction it has enjoyed 43 times in 47 years.

Local sales now exceed one-million vehicles.

Sales volumes for the new Hilux are estimated to be in the region of 3 400 units a month, with Fortuner sales forecast to reach around 1 100 retail units a month.

Exports are forecast to be slightly more than 50% of TSAM’s total 2016 Hilux and Fortuner production.

This year, TSAM will export more than 55 000 Hilux and Fortuner units to 74 countries, including Africa (43 markets), Europe (28 markets) and Latin America (three markets).

Exports include right-hand-drive and left-hand-drive variants.

The new Hilux will also continue to be supplied to 16 United Nations-affiliated programmes, funds and agencies.

In addition to producing and supplying fully built-up light commercial and passenger vehicles to global markets, TSAM will also be exporting new components to Thailand for use in that facility’s Hilux/Fortuner/Innova production facilities.

TSAM will see production at its Durban plant drop from 138 000 units in 2015 to an expected 122 000 units this year.

Of the 138 000 units assembled at the Prospecton plant last year, 93 500 units were Hilux bakkies, 10 200 Fortuner sports utility vehicles, 26 000 Corolla sedans and 8 600 Quantum minibuses.

Despite having the new Hilux and Fortuner in the model line-up, production volumes are expected to decline this year as the production ramp-up of both these models will only be completed in the middle of the year.

With the Hilux TSAM’s major export product, exports from the Durban plant are also expected to take a knock this year. Export volumes should reach around 52 000 units, down from around 60 000 units in 2015.

Kirby is positive, however, that production and export volumes will meet or exceed 2015 levels by 2017.

Hilux exports to Europe and the rest of Africa have already started.