2 new cars South Africa would have gotten in 2024 – But won’t anymore

The Mazda CX-80 and Renault Oroch were both confirmed for a South Africa introduction in 2024, but they will no longer be making their way to our roads any time soon.

The launches of both vehicles have been postponed for the time being, largely due to affordability concerns.

2024 was a watershed year for the South African automotive landscape.

Budget-focused brands such as Chery and Suzuki gained immense popularity amongst consumers while those in the premium sector like BMW and Mercedes-Benz saw their sales diminish rather quickly.

Mazda and Renault’s new offerings would have leaned closer to the latter than the former, and so it was decided that 2024 just wasn’t the right time for them to make their grand debut.

CX-80

The CX-80 was announced for South Africa in August 2023 and would have been Mazda’s first seven-seater SUV in the market.

At the time, the Managing Director of Mazda Southern Africa, Craig Roberts, said it would appear in local showrooms between April and June 2024 and feature a plug-in hybrid powertrain.

By August, the SUV had still not gone on sale, and TopAuto thus reached out to the automaker to find out where it was.

In response, a spokesperson for the brand said that the CX-80 launch had been “indefinitely postponed.”

The reason, they said, was that Mazda is awaiting “future products in the NEV (new-energy vehicle) space that will be better suited to the required more affordable price positioning and segments in the South African market.”

This suggests that the vehicle would probably have been too pricey to be competitive in the cut-throat SUV segment.

Another Mazda, the BT-50 double cab, was discontinued in our market for the same reason.

In March, the company ceased imports of the bakkie, stating that substantial tariffs made it too expensive to be a real competitor in a category that is dominated by locally made models such as the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and Isuzu D-Max.

“The South African LCV, and in particular the double-cab market, is extremely well developed and competitive with locally manufactured brands and nameplates dominating sales,” said Roberts at the time.

“This factor, as well as an extremely challenging landscape for imported vehicles, competing directly with locally manufactured products, has led Mazda SA to make this difficult decision.”

This may very well have applied to the CX-80, too.

The SUV is assembled in Japan and would have attracted substantial import taxes when brought into South Africa, possibly to the tune of 42% of its entire price tag, putting it out of its own league.

Oroch

In a similar vein, the compact Renault Oroch bakkie was slated to land in South Africa at some point in 2024, just in time to function as a replacement to the now-discontinued Nissan NP200.

Unfortunately, however, the French marque confirmed early into the year that the rollout of the Oroch had been put on hold.

“One of the key factors that have made it challenging for us to competitively launch Oroch locally is the degradation of the exchange rate,” a spokesperson for Renault told TopAuto in February 2024.

“The exchange rate influences and has a direct impact on competitive market pricing.”

Since the was first announced for South Africa back in 2021, the value of the rand has noticeably deteriorated.

Against the US dollar, it went from around R15/dollar in 2021 to around R18/dollar today. Versus the Euro, from R18 to R19; and against the Pound, from R20 to R23.

The Renault bakkie would therefore likely have been more expensive than the company wanted it to be, which would have impacted sales volumes and profitability.

The bright side, however, is that the Oroch isn’t binned for South Africa indefinitely.

“Until such a stage that market conditions improve (exchange rate) and are favourable to competitively launch Oroch locally, the project is on hold,” said the brand.