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
How can automotive retailers set themselves apart from their peers in a highly competitive market? The answer is simple: by delivering exceptional customer experiences.
By Harm Stavast, Regional Sales Director, Keyloop
Today’s consumers demand to be in control of their own customer journey and, faced with so many choices when it comes to the car buying and ownership journey, are willing to pay more for a good experience. On the other hand, they are more likely than ever to look elsewhere if unsatisfied.
That’s why automotive retailers must lean into the power of technology to help transform their customer relationships and the effectiveness of their businesses. This will enable retailers to provide the same levels of exceptional service through every channel – no matter when, where or how the customer chooses to engage with them.
Automotive retailers need to reimagine their relationship with technology platforms. For Keyloop, this is represented through five key pillars:
In turn, Experience-First is both a blueprint and a technology platform created by Keyloop to help retailers deliver an exceptional customer experience – helping them to build trust and improve margins. To look under the hood of Experience-First, Keyloop has published a white paper written by our leadership team, titled Revolutionising automotive retail through technology,
If you would like to speak to us more about Experience-First, contact us via https://keyloop.com/en-za/contact.

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.
South Africa’s domestic new-vehicle market strengthened in September, recording 61 645 sales, its highest monthly total of 2026. Sales increased by 3 747 vehicles, or 6.5%, from August’s originally reported total and were 12.7% higher than in September 2025.