Chinese vehicle manufacturer now number three in SA

One of China’s biggest vehicle manufacturers, Chery Group, is now number three in the South African market, according to January data from automotive business council Naamsa.

Combined, the group has taken third position in terms of units sold from the Volkswagen Group Africa (VW), behind Toyota and Suzuki Auto. Chery sold a total of 5 221 vehicles in SA in January, against the 4 774 by VW.

Breaking down the brands

This is not immediately obvious as the group’s brands Chery, Jetour, Omoda and Jaecoo are reported separately. These have been set up as distinct entities in the country (Chery Auto South Africa, Jetour South Africa, Omoda and Jaecoo South Africa).

In December, the combined sales for the group in South Africa was practically equal to that of Suzuki, with only a 0.5% gap (or 24 vehicles) between the two.

Anchor Capital first highlighted this in a January webinar, where CEO Peter Armitage noted how “industrial South Africa is changing” with “things changing on the ground”.

One could argue that combining Chery’s sub-brands into a single figure is not strictly accurate, but there is precedent for this: the Volkswagen Group includes both VW and Audi while, similarly, BMW Group includes BMW and Mini.

	Sep 25	Oct 25	Nov 25	Dec 25	Jan 26
Toyota*	14 146	13 559	13 576	12 993	11 786
Suzuki	6 072	6 890	6 385	4 961	6 410
Volkswagen Group*	5 763	6 221	6 044	5 014	4 774
Chery Group	4 280	4 377	5 149	4 937	5 221

Source: Naamsa

* Both Toyota and VW have commercial units included in their domestic sales data (295 and 22, respectively).

Chinese SUVs

The popularity of Chinese SUVs in South Africa, and globally, has been a growing trend, with four of these brands (GWM, Chery, Jetour as well as the combined group Omoda and Jaecoo) rocketing into the top 15 in terms of sales during 2025.

Chery Auto (alone) sold 2 258 vehicles in January, which places it seventh locally.

Jetour only entered this market in September 2024 and by July 2025, less than a year later, it was already in 15^th place in terms of units sold.

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Its success in just 18 months has been astonishing – it is already in 11^th position in terms of total units and 10^th when it comes to passenger and light commercial vehicles (LCVs), comfortably ahead of Renault, Omoda and Jaecoo, Nissan, BMW Group and Stellantis (and Isuzu when it comes to only passenger and LCV sales).

Jaecoo launched in SA in early 2025, while Omoda entered the country in April 2023. Chery, GWM and Haval (the last of these is part of GWM) have been active in this market for more than five years. Chinese rival GWM (at 2 521 units) is sixth.

This is a more accurate depiction of that group’s sales as this number includes all three of its brands in the country: Haval, GWM and Tank. There is now a sizeable gap (around 700 units) between six and seven and number eight, nine and 10.

Shift in SA’s automotive market

WeBuyCars has says 2025 saw a “structural shift” in the South African automotive market, “driven by the rapid entry and expansion of new Chinese manufacturers and other value-focused Asian brands”.

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This helped boost new vehicle registrations, particularly between April and September, where growth was 15.5% compared with the same period in 2024.

Rather than a threat to the market’s largest used vehicle dealer, “each new vehicle sold represents a future opportunity in the pre-owned market, either through trade-ins or direct sales”.

WeBuyCars says “new vehicle sales from Chinese brands increased by 74.4%” year-on-year, while other brands with “value-for-money offerings” including Suzuki grew by 26.4%.

In January, Chery SA and Nissan announced that the Chinese automaker would acquire Nissan’s Rosslyn manufacturing plant, with the deal set to be finalised by the middle of 2026.

This comes as Nissan moves to shut seven factories globally by 2027, which it announced in May 2025.

At the time, it did not disclose which plants it would shut, but Rosslyn was thought to be on the list (along with others in Japan, Argentina, Mexico and India).

Global performance

Chery Auto, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, sold a record 2.8 million vehicles globally, including 1.34 million outside of China (up 17% versus 2024).

The Chery brand comprises the bulk of these sales at 1.7 million, while it sold 622 000 Jetour models.

Listen: SA’s auto sector landscape: Tariffs, job losses, and calls for localisation

It has five major brands: Chery, Jetour, Exceed, iCar and Luxeed. Omoda and Jaecoo are effectively ‘differently’ branded Chery and Exceed vehicles “mainly targeting overseas markets”.

It says that in 2024 it was the “second-largest Chinese domestic brand passenger vehicle company and the 11^th largest passenger vehicle company globally by sales”.

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