Chery names its first bakkie Grootman
Chery has named its first bakkie for South Africa Grootman, a name chosen by South Africans. The model is planned to make its local debut in the first quarter of 2027.
- Product News
- 2 October 2026
It has come to the attention of Knysna Speed Festival, the owner of the Simola Hillclimb, that Zwartkops Raceway has used Simola Hillclimb’s event regulations for its Top of the Hill event to be held in October.
This issue came to our attention at the Festival of Motoring at Kyalami held recently. We had no idea that Zwartkops had used our regulations for its event until competitors approached us about it, having assumed that we had to somehow be involved owing to the identical regulations.
We therefore issue this statement to clear up any confusion in this regard. To be clear, the Simola Hillclimb is in no way whatsoever involved in this race meeting.
While we encourage the running of additional Hillclimb events in the country, the use of our regulations, classes, naming conventions, event format, competitor selection process, graphics and other intellectual property in which we have invested many years of time, effort, experience and money, without permission is unacceptable and we have communicated this to the event organisers accordingly.
Netcare Diagnostics (a Netcare Group business) is introducing its first fully electric vehicles to its transport fleet, starting with shorter urban routes for collecting patient pathology specimens.
South Africa’s new vehicle market recorded aggregate domestic sales of 61 645 units in September 2026, an increase of 12.7% compared with the 54 706 units sold during September 2025.
SA Auto Week 2026 is scheduled to take place in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, from 13 to 16 October, with the event marking five years of SA Auto Week.