Nissan South Africa is aiming to produce two further models at its plant in Rosslyn in Pretoria in addition to its Navara one-ton pickup.

Nissan SA MD Maciej Klenkiewicz confirmed this on Tuesday, adding that their priority is to bring in a successor to the half-ton pickup.

Klenkiewicz stressed that introducing a second model for production at the plant is “not only a possibility, that is our goal”.

“Some programmes are being reviewed and investigated.

“Of course, our priority is to bring the successor to the half-ton pickup. That is still on our agenda and we will do everything to bring it as quickly as possible,” he said. “But at the same time, we are looking for another model as well.”

Retrenchments

The reference to the successor model to the half-ton pickup relates to the production of the NP200 at the Rosslyn plant ending this week at the end of the model’s lifecycle.

This will result in about 400 Nissan SA employees, 25% of its total 1 600 workforce, leaving the company’s employ this week in an employee reduction plan.

These retrenchments became necessary when the company was unable to secure an immediate replacement model for the NP200 for production at its Rosslyn plant.

Read:
Nissan SA to cut 400 jobs
Management shake-up at retrenchment-hit Nissan SA

The end of production of the NP200 means the plant will only be producing the Navara model.

Klenkiewicz said the exact number of employees to be retrenched is still the same, possibly a little less than originally communicated.

He said the whole Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act process was successfully concluded and Nissan SA obtained full agreement with the unions for the retrenchments.

However, he described it as “a very difficult and very painful process for everyone”.

New African markets

Klenkiewicz said Nissan SA has managed to partly compensate for the lost NP200 production by entering new markets in Africa.

“We have managed to fill a big part of that production thanks to the new destinations that we have already introduced.

“Our plans are very ambitious. We are going to ramp up production in the second half of the year, thanks to the new destinations as well as trying to find new customers,” he said.

“It is compensating for a big part of that [NP200 production], but not fully.”

Exports of the Navara from the Rosslyn plant are planned to expand this year to include Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Egypt.

Read: Nissan SA driving its parent company’s African transformation strategy

Klenkiewicz said the first priority is for Nissan SA to cover all the African countries but admitted they are looking at even more export destinations.

He said the Navara is only produced in a few countries globally, and the plant in Rosslyn is much closer to countries surrounding and close to Africa than the Nissan plant in Thailand.

“We are investigating all the opportunities. I cannot confirm anything special today, but this is giving us a big opportunity for the plant and we plan to utilise that for the future,” he said.

Incentives at risk

Klenkiewicz said the Rosslyn plant has an annual capacity of 50 000 vehicles but declined to comment on the plant’s current production levels.

However, he admitted that lower production levels at the plant posed a risk to the incentives available in terms of the SA Automotive Masterplan to all South African-based original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

This is because any reduction in the incentives Nissan SA received will negatively impact the cost competitiveness of models produced in South Africa.

“We have tried to compensate fully or as much as we can with the new [export] destinations, the new Navara specifications [models] and also the enhanced programmes dedicated to specific countries, like the DKD [disassembled knocked-down] production for Ghana, but we couldn’t compensate fully for that loss.

“From the perspective of the incentives, we are in a constant discussion with the government.

“We are trying our best, of course, to keep what we are allowed … and how we can get along with the government rules.

“That process [with the government] is continuing but what will be the outcome, today I cannot say,” he said.

Africa the ‘last frontier’

Nissan Africa MD Sherief ElDessouky said Nissan is more than ever putting in a lot of effort as part of its global plan to expand its presence in the global market, adding that “Africa is the last frontier for the automotive industry”.

“It’s not the matter of what but when because if we compare the population of Africa, it is almost the same as India and very close to China,” he said.

But ElDessouky said the automotive industry in Africa is young and needs to grow, with motorisation rates in Africa at only 42 vehicles per 1 000 people.

The global average motorisation rate is 182 vehicles per 1 000 people.

Read:
Africa: the final frontier for the automotive industry [Oct 2018]
VW, Nissan chase an African market where car loans are rare [Jan 2020]

ElDessouky said Nissan is putting a lot of effort into Africa, which is demonstrated by its special presence on the continent.

He said it is one of the few OEMs with two wholly-owned plants in Africa.

These are Nissan’s specialised commercial vehicle one-ton pickup plant at Rosslyn and its specialised passenger vehicle and small crossover and sport utility plant (SUV) plant in Egypt, plus two joint venture plants in Ghana and Nigeria, he said.

“We have a clear plan of where we want to go with the plants in Africa, [and] how to maximise all the assets,” he said.

“We have been expanding the markets … and we are going to see more.

“Even in existing market[s], we need to strengthen our position with new products, refreshed products and technology and export opportunities from here and also from Egypt to the entire region of Africa.”

Plans for the continent

ElDessouky said Nissan’s plan for Africa has a few pillars, including:

• The heritage of Nissan pickups that are designed for Africa is very robust and sporty to match all the roads in Africa;
• The expertise of Nissan in the crossover and SUV market segments; and
• Electrification over time in Africa.

ElDessouky admitted it might take some time to introduce electric vehicles (EVs) into African markets, but it has plans on how to introduce electrification into the continent, especially with Nissan’s bridging technology, e-Power.

He said some African markets are ready for this technology, and e-Power was, for example, launched in Morocco in September/October last year and has been launched in Egypt.

“There is a sequence of markets where we are going to introduce it.

“We believe it is suitable for Africa because you have the total experience of electrification, and then you charge your own battery yourself rather than via an external source,” he said.

Klenkiewicz said Nissan SA aims to bring EVs to South Africa, but not a full EV. He could not say when this will happen.