This just in.
More details later.
A souped up S-class. Sometimes you wonder why such monsters are even made, as the typical owner of a Mercedes Benz S-class would be chauferred around in the back seat instead of driving the car. There’s just not much point to it. But that’s not stopping it to be done. Yup, they do it just because they can, and because people will pay for it. This is the Brabus S V12 S Biturbo, derived from the new 2006 Mercedes Benz S600. Click here to read the rest of BRABUS S V12 S Biturbo
[ UPDATE: Click here to read a test drive report of the new locally assembled Suzuki Swift! ]
[ UPDATE: The locally assembled Suzuki Swift CKD has been launched in Malaysia and goes for RM71,943.50 for the normal version and RM78,099.50 for the Swift Premier. Click here for more details. ]
The popular hot hatch by Suzuki, the Suzuki Swift will appear on Malaysian shores in CKD form by Q1 2007. The Suzuki Swift has been in Malaysia in CBU (fully-imported) form since May 2005, and has enjoyed monthly sales of about 300 units before Suzuki encountered hiccups with the AP system, causing imported Suzuki Swift cars to be stuck at the port.
Suzuki and DRB-HICOM’s subsidiary Suzuki Malaysia Automobile Sdn Bhd who will be assembling the cars signed an agreement on the 17th of March 2006, allowing DRB-HICOM’s SMA to non-exclusively assemble CKD kits for the Suzuki Swift for 4 years for the ASEAN market.
There are many many people I know who really like the Suzuki Swift, however are put off by it’s high price as it’s a fully imported CBU car. The CKD version will most definitely be cheaper, and it’s 1.5 liter DOHC engine’s frugal fuel consumption will probably be a favourite in these times of high petrol prices. Coupled with it’s hot MINI-like looks, relatively large interior space in it’s class, easy parking and a cheaper CKD price, I think we’ve got ourselves a winner. The Hyundai Getz and the Chevrolet Aveo has some serious new competition in 2007.
Mayban Securities Research predicts incentives given by the government to increase competitiveness of the local automotive industry would amount to RM27.5 billion over a 5 year period, which is about RM5.5 billion a year. The government would actually be spending more per year on the automotive industry with this plan, as 5.5 billion expenditure is more than the revenue foregone from excise duty rebates given to national carmakers
Assistance would likely be given to all eligible players, whether local companies, or auto part manufacturers and even non-national assemblers who qualify, although the assistance would likely be less than compared to national carmakers.
Mayban also predicts the form of disbursement or you could say, subsidy, would be according to the amount spent, as well as the area of expenditure. For example, every dollar spent on R&D activities would qualify for a 50 cent grant. Main beneficiaries for this would still be Proton and Perodua.
Proton is expected to announce a non-exclusive alliance with a Chinese firm this week. At one point, Proton’s board had thought about an exclusive partnership with one firm, but Datuk Azlan Hashim told reports that Proton’s board had re-thought the situation and consluded it was better to have several strategic partners in multiple areas like products, components, market access and other activities. Are we looking at a “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” philosophy being put into effect here? The partnership is expected to be finalised in April.
Previously there were rumours on tie-ups between Proton and Chery, as well as Proton and Jinhua Young Man related to car assembly in China. There were not much follow-up on the Chery rumour, however StarBiz reports today that Proton would be selling CKD kits of cars like the Proton GEN-2 to Jinhua QingNian. I think it’s safe to assume Jinhua QingNian is Jinhua Young Man as they are both from ZheJiang.
It is hoped that this partnership will boost Proton’s economies of scale. Jinhua QingNian currently builds luxury coaches and trucks, and hopes to enter the passanger car market with Proton’s CKD kits. The cars will be marketed under Jinhua’s own brand and logo in China. If all goes well and the CKD kits have good sales in the China market, it will definitely improve Proton’s profitability as economies of scale improves and cost per part goes down. Good move, Proton.
Perodua has had some pretty high sales figures this month, selling 8000 units so far for the month and it’s only two thirds way through. Perodua expects to sell 14,000 cars this month, fueled mainly by the Perodua Myvi and the newly launched Kelisa Imago model. It’s previous record sales was back in December 2005 where it sold 13,900 units. The Perodua Myvi is expected to account for 50% of this month’s sales target.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, who currently sells the Mahindra Scorpio here in Malaysia is planning to assemble pick-up trucks here in Malaysia in 2007. Assembly will be done through a joint-venture with Mahindra’s current distributor USF-HICOM (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.
The Mahindra Scorpio is currently offered in petrol and diesel versions here in Malaysia. While it looks like a rugged off-roader, it actually has no 4WD ability. Not sure if the diesel variant has it or not, but the petrol one definitely doesn’t.
Companies are taking blogs seriously as a communication medium. GM has it’s Fast Lane blog. If you love Formula 1 and especially if you are a fan of the Renault F1 team, do check out Renault’s F1 Team weblog.
It has information on the team’s progress as well as stuff like chat interviews with key team members, complete with photos in a nice weblog format. BTW, congrats to Renault for taking the top two spots on the podium. I suppose the Lion Dance the night before helped bring luck. Some of you might know what I mean.
Am still recuperating from an awesome Renault F1 Pit Party. Anyone went?
Malaysian car manufacturers Proton, Perodua might be able to enter the US market with the upcoming Free Trade Agreement between Malaysia and the USA. Malaysia is currently the USA’s 10th largest trading partner, with transactions worth USD$44 billion in 2-way trade. The (U.S.) National Association of Manufacturers estimates that this could double by 2010. Hopefully car exports might make a small amount of that. We’ll have to see how China cars fare in the US market before we can get an idea of how our cars will perform.
There’s a small teaser on Perodua’s site, depicting a nice pair of eyes. One of them is silver, and one of them is green. The teaser text says “Sometimes silver, sometimes green” and beckons us to their showrooms on March 19 to find out what it is. That’s this Sunday. Anyone have a clue?
Update: There are rumours that a new Perodua Kelisa special edition facelift will be launched, with a special coat of paint that varies between silver and green when you look at it under different light and angles. Kind of like Nokia’s old phone covers. These are just rumours of course, we’ll find out on Sunday. 
