Stellantis – the global automotive group behind brands including Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat – is finalising a revised business case for its planned Nelson Mandela Bay assembly plant.
“The Coega manufacturing project remains under active assessment and has not been cancelled,” Sizwekazi Mdingi, head of communications and corporate social responsibility for South Africa told Freight News following the group’s 2026 Investor Day presentation last week.
Stellantis presented FaSTLAne 2030, described as a “€60 billion, five-year strategic plan to accelerate growth and profit”.
“Given current industry conditions, Stellantis is finalising a revised business case aimed at securing additional product allocation from the start of production to support long-term sustainability and targeted volumes.
“This review may result in changes to the project scope, required investment and timeline,” Mdingi told Freight News.
Concerns about the project’s future have followed Stellantis’s closure or repurposing of plants in other markets and its announcement of an $18 billion investment in its United States manufacturing base.
The plant was originally planned as a R3 billion project to assemble around 50 000 completely knocked down (CKD) Peugeot Landtrek bakkies a year.
“The groundworks phase has been completed. Further construction beyond this stage is currently on hold pending completion of the revised business case and the associated review and approval process with relevant stakeholders and partners,” Mdingi said.
“As timing will depend on the outcome of these governance steps, Stellantis is not in a position to confirm a definitive start-of-production. We will provide an update once the next confirmed milestone has been reached,” she added.
The company sees Africa as a growth market, which was outlined at the Investor Day. In the Middle East and Africa region, Stellantis aims to increase its revenues by 40% while maintaining a double-digit margin, Stellantis Global CEO, Antonio Filosa, said.
“We will achieve this through a competitive transformation of our vehicle sourcing by leveraging and expanding our manufacturing footprint in the region, for the region and importing key products from Asia,” Mdingi said.
The company will be refreshing its line-up.
“Between now and 2030, in more than 60 new vehicle launches and 50 significant refreshes, across all brands and powertrain energies, including 29 battery-electric vehicles, 15 plug-in hybrid or range-extended electric vehicles, 24 hybrid electric vehicles and 39 ICE/mild hybrid electric vehicles,” said Filosa.
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