How to make an enduring bakkie even more resilient? You give it to Pretoria-based SVI Engineering and let them impart bulletproof protection onto it. That is what Toyota South Africa has done to protect their Proscpecton facility with an armoured Hilux fleet. 

SVI Engineering, leading specialist manufacturer of armoured products, has armoured a fleet of Hilux double-cab bakkies deployed to help protect Toyota South Africa Motors’ massive vehicle-manufacturing plant in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Hilux – which is produced for the local and export markets alongside the Fortuner, Corolla Cross, Corolla Quest and Hi-Ace Ses’fikile at the Japanese firm’s Prospecton facility south of Durban – is a popular recipient of SVI’s semi-discreet B6 Stopgun V2.0 armouring kit and was the obvious choice for Toyota SA Motors’ security division.

Forming part of the local automaker’s proactive security risk management strategy, each vehicle in the fleet of armoured Hilux 2,4 GD-6 Raider double-cab bakkies boasts full ballistic protection against assault rifles, including AK47, R1 and R5. A key employer in KwaZulu-Natal and furthermore indirectly responsible for numerous jobs in the local supply chain, the Prospecton plant – which suffered extensive flood damage in April 2022 – was forced to close for more than a week in July 2021 owing to civil unrest in the region. Though the factory thankfully did not incur any damage, the riots and looting in parts of the province meant production had to be halted, impacting both local customer deliveries and exports.

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Nicol Louw, Business Development Director at SVI, says the armouring company is pleased to play a role in the protection of one of South Africa’s foremost automotive manufacturing facilities.

“Our B6 Stopgun V2.0 kit for the armoured Hilux is already the preferred choice in South Africa’s broader security industry, where it saves lives virtually on a weekly basis, and we’re immensely proud that SVI-armoured bakkies now form part of Toyota SA Motors’ security fleet, too,” says Louw. The semi-discreet kit is available for single, extended and double-cab body styles. It takes around four weeks to prepare and just three weeks to install, with the vehicle remaining fully serviceable at the agent.

Featuring unobtrusively integrated door armour, the Stopgun V2.0 option also includes uprated door hinges to cope with the additional mass of the various B6 components. Flat armoured glass is bolted into each window frame to allow for fuss-free replacement should damage be sustained during an attack. In addition to the integrated door armour and ballistic glass, the roof, front fenders, all pillars and part of the firewall gain B6 bullet-resistant protection, as do critical under-bonnet components such as the battery and ABS unit. Furthermore, the curtain airbag (where fitted as standard) remains fully functional. Gunports are provided as standard but can be deleted upon request, while a front suspension upgrade is also included in the price.