{"id":619478,"date":"2025-11-24T07:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T05:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=619478"},"modified":"2025-11-24T07:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T05:05:17","slug":"tesla-warning-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/619478-tesla-warning-to-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Tesla warning to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent job posting suggests Tesla is preparing to launch in its first African country \u2014 Morocco \u2014 which is threatening to dethrone South Africa as the continent’s top car producer for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla’s careers website recently advertised the position of Moroccan Country Sales & Delivery Leader in Casablanca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the successful applicant would be responsible for driving sales, delivery strategy, and daily operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will be accountable for achieving ambitious sales and delivery targets, as well as ensuring the business meets key success criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include market growth, customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and employee deployment and retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are also expected to act as an ambassador for Tesla in the market and provide critical perspective and guidance on decisions impacting outcomes within their market to increase Tesla’s market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apparent decision to begin its entry into Africa with Morocco may seem curious, considering the country’s relatively small local car market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, 176,401 cars were sold in Morocco, compared to 515,712 in South Africa, Africa’s biggest market for vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the North African country’s vehicle manufacturing industry is growing rapidly and is expected to surpass South Africa’s in terms of vehicle output in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, it manufactured 559,645 cars, representing a 5% increase over the previous year. South Africa managed 599,755, a decline of 5% from 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco’s output is expected to exceed 600,000 in 2025, while South Africa’s looks set to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North African country already leads in passenger vehicle production, producing over 174,000 more of these cars in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its proximity to Europe \u2014 South Africa’s largest target market for exported vehicles \u2014 gives Morocco a geographical advantage in terms of supply chains and shipping fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country is also ahead of South Africa in EV production, producing 40,000 to 50,000 units in 2024, with plans to increase this. South Africa has not yet produced a single fully electric car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moroccan government embraces electric as South Africa staggers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Tesla Model Y, the world’s best-selling car in 2023 and 2024, is not available in South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Key to the surge in growth for Morocco’s automotive industry is drawing investments of roughly $10 billion for EV and automotive sector expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the majority of Morocco’s EVs are exported, locals also seem to have a much stronger appetite for these cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official data from the National Automobile Associations of South Africa (Naamsa) shows that 1,257 EVs were sold in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While EV sales in Morocco were lower at 1,125 units last year, analysts expect this to grow to 4,248 units in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving this surge is Morocco’s government exempting EV imports from value-added tax and customs duties, as well as boosting benefits for corporations using these vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco’s public charging infrastructure is also more developed than South Africa’s, with approximately 1,000 locations in 2024, compared to between 400 and 500 locally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moroccan government itself is expanding the network and is offering low rates or free charging to further incentivise uptake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, the year-to-date sales figures for EVs suggest that the market will shrink. As of October 2025, 902 EVs were sold in the country, compared to 1,144 over the same period last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African government will only introduce tax incentives for car manufacturers investing in new energy vehicle upgrades and equipment from April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are currently no government-driven incentives to encourage South African consumers to buy EVs. In fact, its colossal failures with Eskom have made EVs less attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, EVs imported from Europe and the UK are subject to higher customs duties than petrol and diesel cars from the same region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla’s biggest rival in aggressive expansion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Elon Musk meeting President Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said that South Africa’s high import taxes on EVs make it unfeasible to bring the world’s top-selling electric car brand to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a source familiar with Tesla’s plans in South Africa has told MyBroadband that the company was waiting for local annual EV sales to reach a certain threshold before entering the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they requested that we keep the precise target confidential due to competitive considerations, MyBroadband can confirm that Morocco is expected to surpass that target this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Tesla is taking a wait-and-see approach to South Africa, its biggest rival BYD is already investing billions of rands in dealerships, marketing, and supporting infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has launched multiple EVs in South Africa \u2014 including the most affordable model \u2014 and plans to roll out 200 to 300 public charging stations in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla’s choice to roll out in a particular North African country could reflect a much greater issue with South Africa’s automotive industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":572588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[85881,31960,67290,11373,1491,87493,20719],"class_list":["post-619478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-byd","tag-electric-cars","tag-electric-vehicles-evs","tag-elon-musk","tag-morocco","tag-new-energy-vehicles-nevs","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619478"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619721,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619478\/revisions\/619721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}