Mahindra South Africa and Auto Investment Holdings Group (AIH) have started work on a brand-new assembly facility to be completed by June 2025, the subsidiary of the India-based vehicle manufacturer said.
The company, which began vehicle assembly in South Africa at the Dube Tradeport outside eThekwini in 2018 and produced its 20 000th Pik Up model vehicle last week, said the new assembly facility would cover 14 000 square metres and would double the group’s current investment in South Africa.
“The new assembly facility will anchor Mahindra’s next growth phase in South Africa,” Rajesh Gupta, CEO of Mahindra South Africa said in a statement.
Mahindra South Africa first opened its doors in October 2004 when representatives from Mahindra & Mahindra opened an office in Pretoria and hired its first local team members.
Since then, the company has grown its vehicle range, its dealer network and its supporting infrastructure to levels that can match that of many other local manufacturers. It has sold some 96 000 vehicles in total.
It has become the second largest seller of single cab bakkies, as well as the fourth largest bakkie retailer overall. This is a far cry from the early days when only a few of its Bolero and later its Scorpio SUV were sold through a small number of local dealers.
“The assembly facility has allowed us to not only meet the growing local demand for Pik Up models, but to also serve the needs of the South African bakkie buyer. For instance, the Pik Up Karoo Dusk, Dawn, Storm and Dew Special Edition models are made possible by the assembly plant,” Gupta said.
The goal was to make South Africa the second home for Mahindra outside of India, he said.
When Mahindra opened its assembly facility in May 2018, its initial goal was to assemble up to 2 500 Pik Up models a year. This target had been exceeded by a factor of four, he said.
The company’s other investments in South Africa also included a new multi-storey parts warehouse in Johannesburg, a new high-tech training facility in Centurion and a Special Fitment Centre in Kempton Park.
The Fitment Centre allowed Mahindra to introduce special edition models such as the popular Karoo and Karoo Dawn, Dusk, Storm and Dew special editions.
“AIH and Mahindra have worked closely together to increase the production output and complexity of the facility. All the intellectual property that we have generated by constantly improving our plan is shared with Mahindra for use in other similar facilities across the globe,” said AIH Group CEO Corrie Kotze
The company employs 90 staff in South Africa, but more would be employed once the expanded assembly facility started production.
Founded in 1945, the Mahindra Group is a large multinational federation of companies with 260 000 employees in over 100 countries. It has over 94 dealerships in cities and in towns across South Africa. It also exports vehicles to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland and Namibia.
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