South Africa’s automotive industry expects that Covid-19 will continue to have significant impacts on the economy and the industry in 2022. Growth will be impacted on by upward movement in interest rates and fuel prices, particularly for passenger car sales, more so than for commercial vehicles. However, the industry is poised for any opportunities that may arise as businesses adapt to a changing environment.

Indeed, the automotive industry is poised to change more in the next ten years than it has in the past 100 years naamsa | The Automotive Business Council CEO Mikel Mabasa has said, with electric vehicles (EVs) expected to take centre stage in the years to come.

However, South Africa’s automotive industry faces the task of understanding and governing twenty-first-century technologies, with a twentieth-century mindset and nineteenth-century institutions, Mabasa said at the Southern African Transport Conference in July 2022.

Government is examining legislative and regulatory gaps on automated and electric vehicles. This includes policy gaps related to charging infrastructure and how EVs will be integrated into South Africa’s electrical grid, with particular reference to eliminating unnecessary barriers to ensure the predominant use of EVs in the country in future.

It is also imperative that the automotive industry ensures that as few people as possible get left behind in the EV transition.

Creamer Media’s 'Automotive 2022: The road to EVs' report examines South Africa’s automotive industry in this context, unpacking the country’s vehicle sales, manufacturing and investment by the country’s original-equipment manufacturers and components industry, as well as the regulatory environment. It also explores the shift from internal combustion engines to EVs, as it becomes increasingly necessary to decarbonise and mitigate against climate change.

This report is a summary of information published in Engineering News and Mining Weekly, as well as of information available in the public domain over the past 12 months. The report does not purport to provide analysis of market trends.