GM to exit SA by end of 2017

It came as a shock to everyone when General Motors (GM) announced on Thursday morning that they will be leaving the country. Production will be ceased by year end and its manufacturing plant in Struandale‚ Port Elizabeth is being sold to Isuzu.

There was also an announcement that GM would be leaving India. Their exiting from SA and India follows a recent announcement that it was leaving Europe and selling off its Opel brand to the French automaker PSA (Peugeot, Citroën and DS) for $2.3bn.

Stefan Jacoby, GM’s Vice-President of International Operations‚ had this to say: "After a thorough assessment of our South African operations‚ we believe it is best for Isuzu to integrate our light commercial vehicle manufacturing operations into its African business. We determined that continued or increased investment in manufacturing in SA would not provide GM the expected returns of other global investment opportunities."

AutoTrader’s CEO, George Mienie, covers the story (read more here) and has confirmed that GM will honour warranties and maintenance plans for Isuzu, Chevrolet and Opel owners beyond 2017. This will be done through Isuzu dealers until dealings with PSA have been finalized.

GMSA’s : Homepage on their site has also been transformed to FAQ’s. For more details on what this means to the consumer, you can have a look at the information given publicly and directly from GM. It covers the what, why and when.

“Globally, GM firmly believes there are opportunities where it can achieve greater return on investment – in specific vehicle segments and markets where the outlook for growth is very strong (business adjacencies, SUVs and crossovers, U.S. and China),” the company said.

However, vehicle owners needn’t worry as the sale of parts for all three brands will continue locally. The Chevrolet brand is the one most affected but there has been a guarantee given that Chevrolet parts “will be available for up to 10 years after production of your model has ceased.”