Good news about passports, and a new powerful bakkie goes on sale in South Africa

The second-most powerful bakkie in South Africa has officially gone on sale after the Chinese auto giant Geely introduced its Riddara range comprising three distinct models.

The fully electric bakkie arrived with three double-cab derivatives, including rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive options, with prices starting from R611,900.

Geely Auto South Africa COO, Greg Maruszewski, said the Riddara range changes the local conversation around electric bakkies and the familiar bakkie formula.

The top of the range Riddara RD6 boasts 315kW and 595Nm, making the BYD Shark 6 the only bakkie in South Africa more powerful than the new introduction.

Brent Crude oil prices are back down slightly overnight following a short-term spike yesterday, and are now hovering around the $89.50 per barrel mark.

Despite the increase from yesterday morning’s prices, oil is poised to end the week more than 5% lower than on Monday.

This boils down mostly to the United States’ reluctance to re-enter peace talks with Iran, despite diplomatic efforts by other countries to re-engage the two sides.

Away from the Middle East, Russia threatened to strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian territory using British-supplied long-range cruise missiles.

This caused a major shock to the oil price, before Trump settled fears over an attack, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attack a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) country.

Despite ongoing global tension, the South African rand remained stable, keeping steady at around the R16 mark.

This highlights continued local investment optimism and marks a trading shift away from US bonds.

5 important things

Good news for passports in South Africa: The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is expanding its services at bank branches in South Africa to include passport applications at any of the 300 branches nationwide, as well as home delivery [TopAuto].

Toyota sales fall for six straight months on weak China demand: Toyota’s sales fell for a sixth straight month as rising petrol prices weighed on demand for non-electric vehicles in China. Global sales in July, including those of subsidiary Daihatsu, fell 5.3% from a year earlier to 912,683 units. Production declined 1.4% to 934,953 vehicles [Bloomberg].

Ford tackles South Africa’s youth unemployment and technical skills gap with apprenticeships: Ford is addressing South Africa’s high youth unemployment and automotive industry skills gaps through its Autotechnician Apprenticeship Scholarship to upskill future technicians [BusinessDay].

MTN beats Vodacom on the Gautrain: MyBroadband assessed the network performance of South Africa’s five major mobile operators across the entire Gautrain network, and found MTN to have the best performance [MyBroadband].

2027 Hyundai Santa Fe lineup to gain REEV model: Hyundai Motor Company has announced that its first REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) sold outside the Chinese market will come in the form of the 2027 Santa Fe [Car Magazine].