Our neighbour Namibia is not a country that necessarily springs to mind when one thinks about possible places to build cars, but Groupe PSA has just announced that it will be building Peugeot and Opel vehicles in Walvis Bay from later this year.
The French carmaker has signed a joint venture agreement with the Namibia Development Corporation, and the aim is to produce up to 5000 vehicles a year by 2020. The vehicles will be assembled from semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits.
The Opel Grandland X and Peugeot 3008 - which share a platform - will be the first vehicles to roll off the assembly line, while other as-yet-unnamed products could follow suit depending on demand levels, PSA said.
The Namibian-assembled vehicles will be sold mainly in the Southern African Customs Union countries, which includes SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
PSA regional executive Jean-Christophe said: “This investment in Namibia is part of the long term strategy of Groupe PSA to increase its sales in Africa and the Middle East, consistent with our target to sell one million vehicles in 2025.”