Avatar photo

By Motoring Reporter

Journalist


South Africa ranked in Top 10 of most improved vehicle-building nations

Out of the almost 500 000 vehicles produced last year, more than half were commercial vehicles.


Despite a challenging two years, South Africa’s automotive industry has ranked within the top ten best-performing vehicle assembly countries for 2021.

According to a new survey by UK-based insurance firm, goshorty.com.uk, South Africa placed seventh on the list of countries that shows the biggest increase in vehicle production compared to 2020, surprisingly ahead of Brazil, Portugal and Austria.

Out of the 499 087 vehicles manufactured on local soil twelve months ago, 259 820 were commercial vehicles – a figure that places South Africa fourth behind Brazil (540 402), India (768 017) and unsurprisingly, Thailand (1 091 015) on the list of most improved commercial vehicle manufacturing nations.

ALSO READ: Another Toyota lock-out as new vehicle sales hit record in November

At the other end of the scale, Slovenia rated as the country with the worst vehicle output of the year with a 32% decrease to 95 797, followed by Canada (1 115 002: -19%), Uzbekistan (241 649: -15%), Germany (3 096 165: -12%) and Serbia (21 109: -9%).

Somewhat predictably, China kept its place as the country where most vehicles are produced with 26 082 220 units, ahead of the United States (9 167 214), Japan (7,846,955), India (4 399 112) and South Korea (3 462 404).

In terms of a country’s employment based on the automotive industry, Slovenia ranked first with 16.2% ahead of Romania (15.2%) and the Czech Republic (13.8%), while Greece and Cyprus were found to be the countries least dependent on the automotive with 0.5%, along with Croatia (0.9%).

Countries with the highest increases in vehicle production:

RankCountryCars ProducedCommercial Vehicles ProducedTotal Produced (2021)% change variation 2020/2021
1Argentina184 106250 647434 75369%
2Indonesia889 756232 2111 121 96763%
3India3 631 095768 0174 399 11230%
4Kazakhstan80 67911 73892 41724%
5Morocco338 33964 668403 00723%
6Thailand594 6901 091 0151 685 70518%
7South Africa239 267259 820499 08712%
7Brazil1 707 851540 4022 248 25312%
9Portugal229 22160 733289 95410%
10Austria124 70012 000136 7009%

Biggest car producers in the world

RankCountryCars ProducedCommercial Vehicles ProducedTotal Produced 2021
1China21 407 9624 674 25826 082 220
2United States1 563 0607 604 1549 167 214
3Japan6 619 2421 227 7137 846 955
4India3 631 095768 0174 399 112
5South Korea3 162 727299 6773 462 404
6Germany3 096 165212 5273 308 692
7Mexico708 2422 437 4113 145 653
8Brazil1 707 851540 4022 248 253
9Spain1 662 174435 9592 098 133
10Thailand594 6901 091 0151 685 705

Additional findings of the survey can be found at goshorty.co.uk.

Read more on these topics

manufacturing vehicles

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.