Indian pre-production of first South Africa-bound new Nissan starts

With speculation continuing to grow about Nissan’s alleged closing of its Rosslyn plant outside Pretoria, the automaker has indicated that two of its three products bound for India have entered pre-production ahead of their market reveals next year.

Nissan by Renault

Teased back in March as part of its restructuring process that saw Ivan Espinosa replace Makoto Uchida as CEO, the initial pair of models consists of a Nissan-badged version of the Renault Triber and a restyled take on the new Duster.

Not shown in the mentioned images, the incoming third model will use the Dacia Bigster as a base and could replace the X-Trail as a more affordable option in select developing markets.

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A facility that had been one of Nissan’s biggest outside Japan and even North America, the plant currently produces the Kiger and Triber, as well as the Magnite for 65 markets in both right-and left-hand-drive.

In addition, it will soon produce the Duster currently made in Romania and Turkey, and by extension, the mentioned Nissan model.

Plans for India

Addressing Nissan’s supposed market exit, Vatsa told Autocar India, “I am also happy to say that all our product plans are on track and well underway and, in fact, pre-production of our upcoming B-MPV and C-SUV has already begun at the Renault plant in Chennai.

“Reports of our exit are all untrue, and there is no reason for us to exit. As you can see from our continued development of the Magnite and the new products planned, we are not pulling back from anything”.

Confirming the Triber-based model as debuting in the first quarter of next year, Vatsa stated that the Duster underpinned model, which could revive the Terrano name used on a rebadged version of the original, would make its unveiling in mid-2026 and go on-sale soon after.

Although sold exclusively with five-seats in Europe, Vatsa remarked that the Bigster-derived Nissan, which will also become Chennai-assembled Renault, will be engineered from the start to have seven-seats as opposed to being a “5+2” model.

Accordingly, this model will debut in 2027, suggesting the Renault version as either becoming a reality in late 2026 or early the next year ahead of the Nissan.

Made in India for South Africa

More significantly, both SUVs have received approval for South Africa, the former set to replace the Qashqai that quietly departed the local market last year.

“[These] products will be Nissan’s answer to the Chinese competition in South Africa. We believe [India] is a good source to bring competitive and technologically advanced response to the market,” Nissan Managing Director for South Africa and Independent African Markets, Maciej Klenkiewicz, told the media at the unveiling of the facelift Magnite in Cape Town last year.

A line-up also set to include the all-new Y63 Patrol in 2026, the alleged closure of Rosslyn, which currently only produces the Navara for South Africa and Sub-Saharan African markets, has so far not been commented on as one of the seven plants facing closure.

This comes after the announcement of the Re:Nissan strategy by Espinosa that would see a reduction in production facilities from 17 to 10 and lead to job cuts of 20 000 on top of the 9 000 announced last year.

Uncertain future

Locally, the Rosslyn Plant, which has been in operation since 1966, employs an estimated 1 200 workers, reduced by 400 in 2023 following the discontinuation of the NP200 and the shelving of its almost finished successor due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As it stands, Nissan South Africa has so far remained mum on the reported closing of Rosslyn, though, expectations are that an official announcement will be made in due course.

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