Chery Buys Nissan Factory in Africa

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The Chinese EV market has gotten gigantic. In June, 685,000 pure-electric vehicles were sold in the country, accounting for approximately 43% of China’s auto market. However, 2026 is a down year for the market. As such, Chinese EV companies have been working extra hard to get their cars into other markets. Other Asian countries, European countries, and South American countries have been some of the top markets for export.

However, apparently, there’s so much demand for Chinese EVs in some of these places that some Chinese automakers have started building or buying factories to produced EVs in those other markets as well as in China.

The latest news we have on this is that Chery has bought a factory from Nissan in South Africa to build EVs there. It bought the Japanese company’s Rosslyn factory near Pretoria, South Africa. The factory will produce fully electric, plug-in hybrid, and Jetour models.

Along with rising incomes in Africa, the falling costs of electric vehicles, particularly ones from Chinese companies, are making Africa a promising new region “Analysts say South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana are among the countries best positioned to attract Chinese EV investment because of their industrial capacity, supportive policies or growing electricity infrastructure,” ABC News notes. “Morocco also benefits from proximity to European export markets, while Zimbabwe’s large lithium reserves could support battery supply chains.”

“Africa has become known as the next frontier for the automotive market,” Hiten Parmar, executive director of South African nonprofit The Electric Mission, added.

Another thing is that most African countries import all or most of their oil and gas. Switching to locally produced electricity could make a huge difference in their economies. “Africa is also a net importer of refined fuels, which drains foreign reserves and weighs on local currencies and budgets,” Zero Carbon Analytics energy transition research analyst Nick Hedley noted. “Switching to local electric cars for transportation is in African countries’ national interest.” The quicker these countries can get off of oil, the quicker their economies improve. It just makes sense.