This Heritage Month, AutoX celebrates a proud South African manufacturing legacy that spans generations and continues to grow.
BUILT ON A HERITAGE OF SOUTH AFRICAN MANUFACTURING
This Heritage Month, AutoX celebrates a proud South African manufacturing legacy that spans generations and continues to grow.
Heritage is usually associated with the places, traditions and stories that connect us to our past. But it also lives in the things South Africans have built, the skills we ' ve developed, and the industries that have grown alongside the country. South Africa has a proud manufacturing history, and the automotive industry has long been part of it, nowhere more so than in locally made battery brands like Willard Batteries and SABAT Batteries, names generations of motorists have grown up with.
Willard Batteries has been present in South Africa since the 1920s, with local production beginning in 1954. Over more than seven decades of manufacturing, the brand has built a reputation for reliability across passenger vehicles, commercial fleets, agricultural equipment, mining applications and leisure vehicles, a breadth that matters in a country where vehicles operate in everything from city traffic and long-distance highway travel to farms, mines and remote terrain. Willard Batteries ' history has been shaped not only by local manufacturing, but by an understanding of the unique demands of South African conditions.
SABAT Batteries has an equally distinctive heritage. Established in 1967, with its first factory in Johannesburg, SABAT Batteries built a strong identity of its own, helped along in the 1970s by a visible presence in local motorsport that made the brand instantly recognisable. Over time it evolved beyond car batteries into a broader lifestyle battery brand, now serving passenger vehicles, motorcycles, boats, jet skis, quad bikes and other leisure and adventure vehicles.
Willard Batteries and SABAT Batteries have different histories and different personalities. Today, they form part of the same South African manufacturing story through AutoX.
At the heart of that story is AutoX ' s manufacturing facility in Gqeberha, capable of producing approximately 2.4 million batteries a year and supporting a local workforce of more than 1,100 people. It is a manufacturing operation built on decades of technical expertise and experience.
Local manufacturing is about far more than a " Made in South Africa " label. It creates jobs, builds technical skills and supports a wider network of suppliers, distributors and retailers. Just as importantly, it allows decades of knowledge and experience to be passed from one generation to the next, while adapting to new technologies, changing vehicles and the evolving needs of South African motorists.
For automotive batteries, one of the advantages of local manufacturing is understanding exactly what the product has to withstand. High temperatures, long travel distances, intensive commercial use, corrugated farm roads and tough off-road terrain can all place significant demands on a battery. Engineering batteries specifically for South African conditions is therefore a core part of AutoX ' s local manufacturing capability.
AutoX ' s manufacturing is SABS-approved, and Willard Batteries holds the distinction of being the first South African-manufactured battery to receive the SABS Mark of Approval, a reminder that manufacturing heritage isn ' t just about longevity, but about maintaining standards while continuing to develop.
Manufacturing a battery is only the beginning. For it to make a real difference, it has to reach the people who need it. AutoX products are available through more than 3,000 outlets nationwide and are backed by a national 25-month warranty.
This is where Xpress Batteries comes in. It brings the heritage and manufacturing strength of Willard Batteries and SABAT Batteries into a specialist retail environment, offering professional battery testing, expert fitment, technical advice and convenient service. It stocks Willard Batteries and SABAT Batteries alongside an exclusive Xpress battery range developed specifically for the Xpress Batteries network.
Together, these form three parts of one value chain. AutoX brings local manufacturing capability, Willard Batteries and SABAT Batteries bring decades of South African motoring heritage, and Xpress Batteries brings the specialist retail channel connecting it all to motorists.
Heritage Month is a chance to reflect on what has shaped the country. For businesses with long histories, it is also a reminder that a proud past matters most when it provides a foundation for the future.
The automotive world continues to change as vehicle technology advances, manufacturing becomes more sophisticated, and motorists expect greater convenience and better service. For South African manufacturers, the challenge is not simply to preserve what has already been built, but to build on it through continued investment, skills development, new technology and consistently high standards, while ensuring that established South African brands remain relevant to new generations of motorists.
Heritage doesn ' t only belong to the past. It ' s on the production line. In the skills passed from one generation of workers to the next. In battery brands South Africans have trusted for decades. And in products engineered specifically for the country they ' re built for.
SEPTEMBER 2026 13 WORDS IN ACTION