Automotive Business Council announces Gqeberha as host of 2025 SA Auto Week
Both the major automotive manufacturing showcases in the country, the Automotive Business Council's Auto Week and the Naacam Show 2025, hosted by the country's components industry, will be held in Nelson Mandela Bay this year, for the first time in history.
The Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) announced on Monday that it was 'going back to their roots' and will hold its premier event, Auto Week 2025, in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay.
The metro houses the biggest automotive manufacturing sector in South Africa and Gqeberha is the city where Naamsa was founded. It is home to almost half of the country's auto manufacturing and components sector.
The event will be held in partnership with the Eastern Cape Provincial Government.
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said, 'We are ecstatic to form a partnership with Naamsa to host this lucrative event in our province, specifically in Gqeberha, a city that embodies our rich automotive heritage.
'As a province which hosts some of the biggest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), with a 38% contribution to the country's vehicle production, this opportunity is critical in fostering partnerships that will bring the much-needed investment into our provincial economy.'
Founded in 1935 in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha, Auto Week 2025 will take place at the Coega Vulindlela Accommodation and Conference Centre, a premier facility owned and operated by the Coega Development Corporation.
Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa said, 'It is profoundly symbolic that the SA Auto Week 2025 takes place in the city where Naamsa's journey began. This historic city, now a model for reindustrialisation, will convene all of us in October to map the next chapter of African automotive excellence. It is our strongest conviction that the automotive industry will change faster in the next decade than it has in the last century and that a strong foundation for change will be laid in Gqeberha.'
Coega Development Corporation CEO Themba Koza said this was a milestone for the Coega Special Economic Zone. Automotive Manufacturer Stellantis is building its new R3-billion factory in the Coega Special Economic Zone.
'Bringing SA Auto Week to Coega is more than just an event, it's a powerful endorsement of what's possible when visionary leadership, enabling policy, and industrial capability align. We are proud to host global automotive leaders and stakeholders at our world-class Special Economic Zone. This is a moment of pride for the Eastern Cape and a catalyst for future growth,' Koza added.
The Coega Special Economic Zone houses several leading global manufacturers such as BAIC and FAW Trucks, alongside component suppliers including Grupo Antolin, Faurecia, Hella, Rehau and Schnellecke Automotive.
The theme for Auto Week will be, 'Reimagining the Future, Together: Cultivating Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity'.
Auto Week 2025 will happen hot on the heels of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers' Naacam Show that will be held at the Boardwalk International Conference Centre in August.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said the chamber was excited about the holding of both showcases in Nelson Mandela Bay this year.
She said the decision to host the events in the Bay reinforced the importance of the metro as an automotive manufacturing hub on the African continent.
'This is the first time in the history of our metro that both of these major automotive events are taking place here in the same year,' Van Huyssteen said.
'The fact that both of these events are being held here underscores the depth of the automotive ecosystem which is based in the Bay, which encompasses a wide range of automotive components right through to the assembly of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and trucks,' she said. DM
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