Willowvale Motor Industries

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willowvale Motor Industries
legal form Proprietary Limited Company
founding 1967
Seat RhodesiaRhodesia Rhodesia (1967–1980) :
Willowvale , Salisbury Zimbabwe (since 1980) : Willowvale , Harare
ZimbabweZimbabwe 
Branch Automobile manufacturer Commercial vehicle manufacturer

The Willowvale Motor Industries (Pvt.) Ltd. (from 1989 to 2015 Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries (Pvt.) Ltd. ) is an automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer in Zimbabwe .

history

After the unilateral declaration of independence in Rhodesia, due to UN sanctions, it was no longer possible to import complete vehicles to Rhodesia. In addition, the two domestic assembly plants of BMC and Ford lost access to their export markets, so that production stagnated and both plants had to close in early 1967.

Both assembly plants were bought by the Rhodesian Industrial Development Corporation .

Companies whose vehicles were assembled by WMI included Toyota , BMW , Peugeot , Citroën , Nissan (Datsun) , Scania , Renault , Bedford and Alfa Romeo . The assembled BMW models were the BMW 2000 GL based on the Glas 1700 and sold here as Cheetah .

Other brands produced were Daihatsu and Isuzu . In July 1980, Mazda models were added. The Toyota Land Cruiser was manufactured from 1981 to 1993.

In addition, tractors from Ford, Deutz, Universal (Romania), Fiat, John Deere and Massey Ferguson were assembled.

In 1986 the government of Zimbabwe announced a new automobile manufacturing initiative. At the same time, production had to be severely restricted due to the lack of foreign currency.

In 1989 Mazda was won as a technical partner. The company, which has been renamed Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries , is owned by the state-owned Motec Holdings (58%), Mazda Motor (25%), Itōchū (8%) and an employee fund (9%).

In the 1990s WMMI employed around 2000 people (1997) and produced up to 9000 units per year.

From the year 2000, production fell sharply. In the years 2000 and 2010, production had to be interrupted for several months. In 2012 WMMI stopped production. The reason given was that at least 4000 units had to be produced per year. This value had already been significantly undercut before.

The most recently produced models were the Mazda 3 and Mazda BT-50 .

In November 2015 it was announced that the company would be renamed Willowvale Motor Industries again without changing the ownership structure or business model.

At the beginning of 2017, production was resumed in cooperation with Beijing Automotive Group and Astol Motors as part of the newly founded joint venture Beiqi Zimbabwe . Double-cab pick-ups are produced and sold as BAIC Great Tiger or ZX Grand Tiger .

GNW Duiker

The GNW Duiker (also GNW Duiker ) is a concept study exhibited at the Salisbury Show in 1972. Around 80 percent of the components required for the model came from local production. The chassis, the engine and the braking system came from the Renault 12. In a planned series production, the model would have been available as a two-seater roadster, pick-up or station wagon. The roadster's top speed was specified as 137 km / h. Consumption, however, was 40 miles per gallon at 62 mph. The price for the production model should have been less than 2000 Rhodesian dollars. The designation GNW is derived from GN Ward, the head of the plant at the time, while Duiker is the local name for the antelope species Ducker .

A production did not take place due to the difficult foreign exchange situation. Security concerns were also mentioned.

Willowgate

In 1988 and 1989 newspaper reports made it public that members of the government and high officials were given considerable preferential treatment for the purchase of vehicles at wholesale prices and that some of these privileges were illegally enriched by reselling them. In the context of this scandal known as "Willowgate" several ministers had to resign.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Minter / Elizabeth Schmidt: When Sanctions Worked: The Case of Rhodesia Reexamined , in: African Affairs 87, No. 347, (1988), pp. 207-237.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Chenghua Yu: The transferability of Japanese production system in Zimbabwe: A case study of Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries , University of Tokyo 2012.
  3. ^ The touring limousine GLAS 1700 and 1700 TS on the website of the Glas Automobilclub International eV
  4. ^ Jörg Bauer, The Flight of the Phoenix: Investing in Zimbabwe's Rise from the Ashes during the Global Debt Crisis , 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Mazda In Brief 2013 .
  6. ↑ Activities by Region: Africa , overview of the Toyota Motor Corporation.
  7. ^ Tom Østergaard, SADCC Beyond Transportation: The Challenge of Industrial Cooperation , Nordic Africa Institute, 1989
  8. ↑ a b Elias Mambo: Mazda motor industries faces collapse in: Zimbabwe Independent from May 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ Fidelity Mhlanga: Economic crunch hits Mazda Motors , in: Zimbabwe Independent on 22 May, 2015.
  10. ↑ WMMI to diversify , in: The Financial Gazette of November 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ Willowvale Motor Industries reopens the following deal with Chinese company, venture expected to produce 3,000 units in 3 years & create 5,000 jobs. In: news.pindula.co.zw. March 28, 2017, accessed April 2, 2018 .
  12. ↑ BAIC Grand Tiger available at Clover Leaf Motors. In: Financial Gazette. November 30, 2017, accessed April 2, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Allcarindex (accessed June 12, 2016)
  14. ↑ autopasion18.com (Spanish, accessed June 12, 2016)
  15. ↑ Rhodesian Commentary Vol. 6 No. 18 , September 1972.
  16. ↑ Entry in d'auto .
  17. ^ Quarterly Economic Review: Rhodesia, Malawi , Issue 2-1973 (1971).
  18. ↑ "Rhodesian santions casualties", in: X-ray: Current Affairs in Southern Africa , Volumes 1-4, 1970
  19. ↑ Jane Perlez: Zimbabwe Reads of Officials' Secrets , in: New York Times, January 20, 1989.
  20. ↑ Michael A. Hiltzik: Uproar in Zimbabwe: Just for Once, Corruption's a Real Scandal , in: Los Angeles Times of April 20, 1989.