Our Story

Who We Are

Established over two decades ago, the Durban Automotive Cluster is the primary driver of investment, growth, competitiveness and transformation in the KwaZulu-Natal automotive manufacturing industry.

A representative group of over 70 automotive manufacturers are supported through the programmes and projects of the Durban Automotive Cluster.

Driven by a team of leading automotive manufacturers, and supported by eThekwini Municipality, the cluster creates space for the industry to share knowledge, develop critical skills, enable local sourcing and unlock catalytic industrial development projects to support industry-wide growth and expansion. 

Members benefit from access to skills programmes for their employees, performance benchmark and carbon footprint assessments, a peer-to-peer engagement programme to support shared learning, amongst many other cluster programmes.

Our Impact

Our programmes service the needs of industry, and members receive significant benefit and value from participation. 

At a glance, annually:

  • Over 300 people trained
  • 200+ people engage in our shared learning and peer-to-peer knowledge network
  • 70+ firms supported with competitiveness improvement
  • Millions of rands unlocked in SME development financing
  • Millions of rands saved through the implementation of lean projects
  • Large-lead enterprises supported with B-BBEE optimisation and scorecard improvement programmes
  • Catalytic projects in energy resilience and strategic investment and localisation supported

Our Members

We have a representative membership base comprising of the largest multinationals, and emerging enterprises in the automotive manufacturing industry. Firms collaborate and engage on the matters that are of critical importance to the KwaZulu-Natal automotive manufacturing industry.