General Motors South Africa exported its first shipment of Isuzu KB light commercial vehicles to Kenya over the weekend.
GMSA says Kenya is the latest addition to the company's existing right hand drive export markets of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Mauritius.
Rita Kavashe, Managing Director of East Africa and GMSA Exports Manager, says "the expansion of exports of the locally assembled Isuzu KB into key Sub-Saharan Africa markets will continue to build momentum over the coming months."
"When production of the new generation Isuzu KB commences at the company's Struandale facility next year, this will represent the first time that the vehicle will be built in both right and left hand drive."
"This will open up new opportunities for us to export the Isuzu KB beyond our existing markets to rapidly growing countries like Angola and Nigeria," she added.
Kavashe said according to the International Monetary Fund, Africa was the fastest growing region in the world with its GDP growing an average of 5.5% a year between 2000 and 2012, compared to a global average of 4.4%.
"We are implementing aggressive measures to ensure that we are able to grow our vehicle sales volumes, as the economies in these countries grow."
GMSA says its currently investing R1bn in its three new vehicle assembly programmes which include the Chevrolet Utility which came on stream at the end of last year, the new Spark which will roll off the company's production lines later this month and the 6th generation Isuzu KB which is set to be launched in Sub-Saharan Africa during the first half of 2013.
