The first pre-production Completely Knocked Down (CKD) Foton bakkie has rolled off the assembly line at the company’s plant in SA, making it the first Chinese commercial brand to establish full-scale vehicle manufacturing operations in the country.
From later this year it will build the Tunland G7 one-tonne pickup for the SA market and export it into Africa at the BAIC factory in the Coega Special Economic Zone near Gqeberha.
The plant has been assembling the Beijing X55 in small numbers on a semi knocked-down (SKD) basis, which requires minimal local assembly and components, and BAIC recently announced it would also build the soon-to-be-launched B30 SUV at the factory.
Foton is China’s top-selling commercial brand and is a subsidiary of the BAIC Group, one of China’s largest automotive manufacturers.
Foton made a comeback to SA in 2024 with the imported Tunland G7 bakkie range, six years after the vehicle was discontinued in the country.
The brand is imported by Mandarin Parts Distributors (MPD), a subsidiary of Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), and distributed through a network of 40 dealerships.
With its competitive pricing and high specification levels, the Tunland G7 has been popular since its launch and is the country’s second best-selling Chinese pickup after the GWM P-Series.
The pre-production CKD launch marks a key achievement under Foton’s ambitious “Lighthouse Plan” in Africa, a strategy designed to establish the continent as a pivotal growth hub within the brand’s global expansion roadmap, said Foton SA CEO Marius Smal.
“By choosing SA as the base for CKD operations, Foton is making a long-term commitment to localisation, job creation, and technology transfer,” he said.
“For customers across Africa, local CKD operations translate into the promise of faster availability, competitive pricing, and increased confidence in aftersales support.”
He said manufacturing the Tunland G7 locally will enable Foton to adapt its vehicles more closely to African driving conditions, customer preferences and market demands.
Smal said the value of the investment exceeds 100 million yuan (R241m) in additional equipment and will create 100 jobs in the first phase.
The anticipated build volumes are around 250 Tunlands a month based on current demand for the bakkie. There will be multiple different vehicles built on the same line, including medium and heavy trucks, with the goal of building 10,000 units per annum by 2027, he said.
The milestone follows local car producers and unions increasingly pressuring the government to promote local manufacturing, create jobs and drive meaningful localisation.
Around 64% of cars and bakkies sold in SA are imported, mainly from India and China, and job losses are rising as imports cut into local production. About 25 Chinese brands are on sale in SA with attractive pricing that has garnered more than 10% of new-vehicle sales.
Over the past 19 years, the percentage of CKD vehicles sold in SA declined significantly from 56% to 33% in August, according to Toyota SA CEO Andrew Kirby.
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