Chery Auto’s Rosslyn Plant Opens in South Africa, LEPAS Rides Momentum to Accelerate Local Expansion

Chery Auto’s Rosslyn Plant Opens in South Africa, LEPAS Rides Momentum to Accelerate Local Expansion

July 8, 2026 • News

Witnessed by high-level officials from both China and South Africa, Chery Auto officially inaugurated the Rosslyn Plant. As Chery’s core global brands, OMODA & JAECOO have fully empowered the delivery of this industrial upgrade and regional market rollout. Originally built in 1963, this long-established automobile manufacturing plant has been revitalised under Chery Auto’s stewardship, marking the full lineup of brands, including OMODA & JAECOO, the company’s transition from an importer to a local manufacturer in South Africa and a strategic move in its global expansion.

Retaining All 692 Employees and Generating Nearly 3,000 Jobs

The opening of the Rosslyn Plant marks another significant milestone in Chery Auto’s globalisation journey. Yin Tongyue said: “According to the concept of ‘In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere’, no matter where it invests, Chery Auto will try its best to integrate into the local economy, local community and the future of this country in every market it enters.”

The Rosslyn Plant was acquired by Chery Auto from a foreign company. Chery Auto promised to retain all 692 employees in the factory and will drive nearly 3,000 jobs upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. The factory will be fully upgraded and renovated, and is scheduled to be officially put into production in the middle of next year. After full production, the annual production capacity will reach 50,000 vehicles per shift. At present, Chery Auto has launched an extensive localisation plan, striving to achieve the initial goal of a 40% localisation rate by 2028. It lays a solid foundation of production capacity and supply chain for OMODA & JAECOO to deepen its presence in South Africa.

Chery Auto’s positioning of the Rosslyn Plant is to build it into a comprehensive automotive hub integrating R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, skills training and global radiation. At the same time, Chery Auto plans to build South Africa into Chery’s regional operation centre in southern Africa, starting with the opening of the Rosslyn Plant.

Where and why, fully integrate into local industry and society

With the opening of the Rosslyn Plant, Together with Chery, OMODA & JAECOO have completed the comprehensive layout of a full industrial chain ecosystem across Africa. Chery Auto has also, for the first time, fully laid out the entire industrial chain ecology in Africa-from raw materials to terminal products, and then to renewable energy cycles. The diversified industrial layout covers passenger cars, commercial vehicles, smart agricultural machinery, renewable energy photovoltaics, mineral resources, robots and circular economy.

The Rosslyn Plant project will become a new model of mutual benefit and win-win international cooperation for Chery Auto, and also for OMODA & JAECOO and a new benchmark for industrial global expansion from “global product” to “full value chain and full ecological global expansion”, with deep participation in regional industrial construction.

As a key component of Chery Auto’s smart ecosystem, AiMOGA Robotics deployed its humanoid robot Mornine to team up with the host for on-site interactions, while its robotic dog Argos also provided intelligent services at the ecosystem exhibition area. Leveraging Chery Auto’s global business footprint, AiMOGA robots have been rolled out for practical application in more than 50 countries and over 100 real-world scenarios worldwide. It elevates and enhances OMODA & JAECOO’s global brand image as premium intelligent automotive marques.

Beyond deep industrial cultivation, OMODA & JAECOO also follows Chery to fulfil global social responsibilities. Chery Auto announced that it will rely on the “Cherish the Nature” global cooperation framework with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to launch a cooperation project in key nature reserves in South Africa to systematically promote biodiversity protection, ecosystem restoration and community livelihood improvement.

As one of the most important partners of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Chery Auto has pledged to donate $12 million to support global education projects since 2023, especially supporting UNICEF’s science and innovation education projects in South Africa. Chery Auto-supported programming and robotics courses are being rolled out across South Africa to help prepare South African students for future careers.

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