Stellantis South Africa (SA) has put its proposed assembly plant on hold while the car manufacturer revises the business case for the Eastern Cape facility, says MD Mike Whitfield.

The plant’s original trajectory was to start assembly of a one-ton bakkie this year.

Construction at the proposed site in the Coega Special Economic Zone has, however, not moved forward from the initial earthworks seen in 2024.

Stellantis in 2023 signed a memorandum of understanding with the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to develop the manufacturing facility as a joint venture with the IDC, then priced at R3-billlion.

Stellantis sells the Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Peugeot brands in the South African market.

“We have not stopped or cancelled the plant,” Whitfield tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

“The pickup industry has, however, changed dramatically in the last few years, with a lot of new entrants.

“This means that we are revising the overall business case for the plant, which means that we could, potentially, add two products to the project – the pickup plus two other models.

“The plant will not be sustainable just on a pickup,” says Whitfield.

“We are actively assessing what additional products we can bring in to ensure the long-term stability and sustainability of the project.

“This will result in changes in scope, and in the timeline. As soon as we have finished the study, we’ll be in a position to share it.”

Whitfield is hopeful that this could happen by end-June.

“The products we bring in will determine the start of production,” he adds.

Whitfield explains that the original plan for the plant was to produce the pickup for South Africa, as well as to supply the rest of Africa, and the Middle East.

One of the new additions currently under consideration for the Eastern Cape plant is a new-energy vehicle (NEV) – some form of hybrid or electric vehicle.

“Here we are awaiting government’s policy review on NEVs,” says Whitfield.

He notes that Stellantis is not considering sharing the Eastern Cape plant with another brand, or assembling vehicles for any brand outside the Stellantis stable.

Stellantis has some form of assembly operation in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria within Africa, with “the south [of Africa] important to us”, says Whitfield.

The best-selling Stellantis brand in South Africa is Citroën.

“We are of the view that we need to offer vehicles at Asian cost standard,” says Whitfield. “More and more of what we do will be sourced out of Asia – and I’m not just talking China.”