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Passenger Cars, Bakkies & Vans News

VWSA appoints new sales and marketing director

By: Irma Venter Updated 5 hours ago Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) has appointed Thomas Milz as its new sales and marketing director. Milz has occupied various positions across the Volkswagen Group since 1997, in a career spanning Germany, the US, the Middle East and Russia. →

Online tyre retailer launched in South Africa

By: Darren Parker 26th January 2022 Multinational online tyre retailer Blackcircles has launched its service in South Africa. Following a soft launch in December, the company kicked off full promotion in early January. The company was originally founded in 2001 by UK entrepreneur Michael Welch. It was later acquired by tyre... →

Blackcircles GM Devlin Moodley

AIDC Eastern Cape, SABS sign MoU focused on EVs

By: Irma Venter 26th January 2022 The Automotive Industry Development Centre Eastern Cape (AIDC EC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). This forms part of the AIDC EC’s strategy to position the domestic automotive supply chain for growth and innovation, particularly in... →

Image of AIDCEC CEO Thabo Shenxane, Jodi Scholtz, Lead Admin SABS

Thabo Shenxane and Jodi Scholtz

Volkswagen’s Kariega plant manufactures it 100 000th Polo Vivo

By: Irma Venter 26th January 2022 Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) this week celebrated a production milestone at its Kariega plant, in the Eastern Cape, with the hundred-thousandth unit of the current Polo Vivo rolling off the production line. This comes just more than four years after the plant began manufacturing the... →

Image of the 100 000th Vivo being produced at VWSA's Kariega plant

Pick n Pay rolls out licence renewal service to more stores, at lower cost

By: Darren Parker 25th January 2022 Retailer Pick n Pay launched its new vehicle licence disc renewal service nationally on January 25. Customers can now renew their vehicle licence discs in more than 500 Pick n Pay stores across South Africa for R250 – which excludes the added courier fee of R99.99 for delivery to customers. →

Licence renewals can now be done at Pick n Pay

Motus reports rise in new-vehicle sales, flags ongoing supply chain constraints

By: Donna Slater 25th January 2022 Automotive group Motus expects to report a 20% to 26% year-on-year improvement in operating profit to between R2.1-billion and R2.2-billion for the six months ended December 31. This translates into a profit before tax increase of between 40% to 50% year-on-year, rising from R1.28-billion for... →

Isuzu appoints Marcia Mayaba as dealer, business development executive

By: Irma Venter 25th January 2022 Marcia Mayaba has joined the Isuzu Motors South Africa (IMSAf) senior executive team as the newly appointed department executive for dealer and business development. Mayaba has more than two decades’ experience in the automotive industry. She has been active in various fields, including truck... →

Marcia Mayaba

Mercedes-Benz SA to launch five EVs this year, 8-year battery warranty added

By: Irma Venter 24th January 2022 Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) will introduce five new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from the global Mercedes-EQ range during 2022. This will form part of a “clear strategic push to position the brand as a global and local leader in the electric vehicle (EV) market”. →

The EQA

Daimler Truck, BP to pilot hydrogen-powered fuel cell trucks in UK

By: Irma Venter 21st January 2022 Daimler Truck and BP Advanced Mobility (BP) have announced that they will work together to accelerate the introduction of a hydrogen network in the UK, aimed at decarbonising freight transport. The parties intend to pilot the development of hydrogen infrastructure and the introduction of... →

Porsche, Siemens join world-first project to produce efuel in Chile

By: Irma Venter 21st January 2022 German sports-car manufacturer Porsche and Siemens Energy have joined forces with a number of international companies to build an industrial plant for the production of nearly carbon-dioxide-neutral fuel (efuel) in Punta Arenas, Chile. A pilot plant is initially being built north of Punta... →

Audi rolls out ultrafast 150 kW EV charging network in South Africa

By: Irma Venter 20th January 2022 Audi South Africa (SA) is partnering with GridCars to install ultrafast electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the country. In doing this, the local arm of the German car maker says it will become the first EV brand to invest in this technology at publicly accessible sites. →

CSIR, DSI and NRF establish smart mobility research chair

By: Irma Venter 20th January 2022 The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) have jointly established a research chair in smart mobility, the first of its kind in South Africa. Professor Marianne Vanderschuren, an expert in... →

Suzuki reports 67% surge in new-vehicle sales in 2021

By: Irma Venter 18th January 2022 Suzuki Auto South Africa (SASA) saw 67% growth in new-vehicle sales in 2021 as it delivered 27 583 new vehicles to customers, the highest on record for the local arm of the Japanese car manufacturer. SASA reported new-vehicle sales of 16 527 units for 2020. The same year also saw SASA breach the... →

Automechanika postponed to June

By: Irma Venter 17th January 2022 Messe Frankfurt South Africa has decided postpone Automechanika Johannesburg & Futuroad from March this year to June. “After having engaged with our exhibitors and partners in the automotive aftermarket industry, the unanimous feedback has been that the timeline to June will allow for sufficient... →

KLT wants to diversify, expand in SA, says new CEO

By: Irma Venter 17th January 2022 The KLT Group aims to diversify its business in South Africa following the completion of its large-volume contract with Ford South Africa later this year. KLT’s contract with Ford for the local production of the chassis assembly for the current Ranger bakkie will come to an end in 2022, confirms... →

KLT SA CEO Ashok Thakur

Moove rolls into Kenya, broadens vehicle finance to bikes and trucks

By: Irma Venter 14th January 2022 Africa mobility fintech company Moove has launched operations in Nairobi, Kenya, its first city in East Africa and sixth on the continent. To expand the company’s vehicle and product offerings to customers, the company has partnered with Uber to allow ride-hailing and delivery drivers to... →

A Moove motorcycle taxi (Boda Boda)

Al Attiyah, Baumel win Dakar 2022 in SA-built Hilux

By: Irma Venter 14th January 2022 Nasser Al Attiyah and Mattieu Baumel have won the 2022 Dakar rally in their South African-built Gazoo Toyota Hilux. Al Attiyah and Baumel led the 4 000 km two-week race across the Saudi Arabian Desert from start to finish, ultimately winning the race by 27 minutes from Sebastien Loeb and Fabian... →

Nasser Al Attiyah and Mattieu Baumel in their South African-built Gazoo Toyota Hilux

Kenya's new car sales rebound in 2021 on economic recovery

By: Reuters 13th January 2022 New car sales in Kenya jumped by a quarter in 2021 as economic growth rebounded from a pandemic-induced slump the previous year, driving up demand, the industry association said on Thursday. The East African nation is a small market for new vehicles due to limited purchasing power, which leaves... →

Court declares AARTO Amendment Act unconstitutional

By: Irma Venter 13th January 2022 The High Court has declared the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Amendment Act, on which the planned demerit system for traffic offences is based, unconstitutional and invalid. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) challenged the constitutional validity of AARTO... →

Toyota SA does it again – sales leader for 42nd year with market share at 25.4%

By: Irma Venter 12th January 2022 Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) last year marked 42 years – out of 61 years in the local market – as the best-selling automotive brand in South Africa, while it also recorded a remarkable market share of 25.4%, up from the 23.7% of 2020. This means that one in every four vehicles sold locally... →

The Hilux is once again South Africa's top selling vehicle

Full EVs 65% of all new-car sales in Norway; in SA its 0.2%, hybrids included

By: Irma Venter 12th January 2022 The Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association (NEVA) reports that the Scandinavian country set a new record for electric vehicle (EV) sales in 2021, with 64.5% of all new cars sold fully electric. The association says last year turned out to be the year “EV sales skyrocketed in Norway, where... →

The Tesla Model 3

New-vehicle sales up 22.1%, exports pummelled by civil unrest, Transnet cyberattack

By: Irma Venter 10th January 2022 New-vehicle sales rebounded strongly in the domestic market in 2021, gaining 22.1% to reach 464 122 units for the year, says Naamsa | The Automotive Business Council. This follows a 29.2% drop in 2020, in a year where sales were heavily impacted by the outbreak of Covid-19. →

BMW proposes the prospect of on-the-fly vehicle colour changes

By: Irma Venter 7th January 2022 BMW this week unveiled the iX Flow featuring E Ink at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. The Munich-based premium car manufacturer is offering the prospect of a future technology that uses digitisation to adapt the exterior of a vehicle to different situations and individual wishes. →

Image of the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink

When stimulated by electrical signals, the electrophoretic technology brings different colour pigments to the surface, causing the body skin to take on the desired colouration

Mercedes-Benz unveils its vision for electric mobility – a 1 000 km car

By: Irma Venter 7th January 2022 Are electric vehicles with their currently limited range suitable for one of life’s more iconic events – the road trip? Mercedes-Benz thinks so. The German car maker used this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to lift the veil on a vehicle capable of tackling distances much longer... →

The Vision EQXX

Peugeot introduces its first hydrogen fuel-cell commercial vehicle

By: Irma Venter 6th January 2022 Peugeot’s e-Expert Hydrogen fuel-cell van has entered production. With this, the French vehicle maker says it has become “one of the very first manufacturers to offer, in addition to its combustion and battery-electric versions, a hydrogen fuel-cell powered version in the commercial vehicle... →

The Peugeot e-Expert Hydrogen

Chip execs say there’s no short-term fix for supply shortage

By: Bloomberg 6th January 2022 For chip buyers ranging from computer gamers to automakers, there’s no near-term fix on the way for shortages that have caused higher prices and production delays, semiconductor executives said. Nvidia Corp., which makes chips that are the basis of graphics cards selling for thousands of dollars... →

Submissions for uYilo’s Kickstart Fund 2022 now open

By: Irma Venter 4th January 2022 The uYilo Electric Mobility Programme has opened the Kickstart Fund 2022 for submissions. uYilo was established in 2013 as a multistakeholder, collaborative programme focused on enabling, facilitating and mobilising electromobility (e-mobility) in South Africa. →

And the new iX makes it three…

By: Irma Venter 4th January 2022 Starting from a cool R1.65-million, it is now possible to own BMW Group South Africa’s (BMW SA’s) third fully electric vehicle available in the country – the new iX sports activity vehicle (SAV), adding to the i3 and electric Mini Cooper SE already on the market. The price includes a... →

The new BMW iX

Toyota to launch 30 electric Toyota, Lexus models by 2030

By: Irma Venter 3rd January 2022 Toyota says it will launch 30 Toyota and Lexus battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2030, including the new Toyota bZ4X due for global release later this year. During his presentation, Toyota president Akio Toyoda announced that the Japanese car will expand its options for carbon-neutral vehicles... →

Some of the BEVs Toyota will launch to 2030

AA, Global NCAP release latest #SaferCarsForAfrica crash test results

By: Irma Venter 3rd January 2022 The Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) and the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA South Africa) have unveiled their newest round of #SaferCarsForAfrica crash test results. The fresh round of testing, which looked at the Mazda 2 and the Nissan Almera, was supported by the FIA... →

Image of the Mazda 2 during the Global NCAP crash test

The Mazda 2 during the NCAP crash test

Ford Wildlife Foundation supports penguin rescue project

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 15th December 2021 The Ford Wildlife Foundation (FWF) has extended its support to nonprofit the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds' (SANCCOB's) Penguin Rescue and Rehabilitation project, in Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape. FWF is funded by the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa and... →

Third-quarter Real Economy Bulletin shows auto, iron, platinum export weaknesses

By: Schalk Burger 14th December 2021 While the sharp downturn in the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data is largely the result of the civil unrest in July, the third-quarter GDP data points to additional weaknesses in the economy, above all the sharp decline in automotive exports and plummeting prices of iron-ore and platinum,... →

Hydrogen-powered mobility to only take off after 2030 – Fitch Solutions

By: Donna Slater 14th December 2021 While it expects hydrogen to be a major disruptor for the mobility ecosystem, the nascent maturity of the technology means that it will only “really see a meaningful impact” in decarbonising the transportation system towards the end of the decade, says Fitch Solutions principal autos analyst... →

2023 cleaner fuels introduction plan gets thumbs up

By: Irma Venter 10th December 2021 Naamsa | The Automotive Business Council says it welcomes the announcement of the next step in government’s clean fuels programme, set to become effective in September 2023. The Department Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has gazetted the introduction of the next phase of the Clean Fuels... →

South Africa urged to move quickly to capitalise on battery storage value chain opportunities

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 9th December 2021 An ongoing study funded by the World Bank under the guiding leadership of mineral research organisation Mintek has found that there are considerable opportunities for South Africa in the battery storage value chain. The country, however, needs to move quickly to capitalise on these opportunities... →

Afine lists on JSE as petrol service station Reit

By: Donna Slater 8th December 2021 Afine Investments, which holds a portfolio of income generating immovable properties focused on the petroleum sector in South Africa, plans to list as a real estate investment trust (Reit) on the JSE on December 9. The company was founded by Peter Todd, with strategic input from Mike Watters –... →

Volkswagen includes South African in group of best apprentices

By: Irma Venter 7th December 2021 Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) employee Zintle Mvana has been named one of the best apprentices in the global Volkswagen Group. This is an honour bestowed each year to only a handful of the German car maker’s top young talent across the world. →

Zintle Mvana

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