Peugeot has big plans to increase its presence in Asia, and Malaysia – via its partner Naza – plays a major role in this programme. At a press conference this afternoon, Peugeot deputy managing director Nicolas Wertans unveiled the company’s new identity for the first time outside of France (simultaneous with the launch of the 408 in China) and laid out what’s in store for us in the near future.
Peugeot plans to make Naza’s Gurun plant its right-hand drive manufacturing hub that will not only serve the ASEAN region, but possibly Australia, New Zealand and even South Africa. Exports will start this year, where the T33 compact sedan will be shipped to Thailand and Indonesia.
Peugeot has started the expansion of its ASEAN regional office in Petaling Jaya and Mr. Wertans said that a new team is being sent from France to study the market. This team will be based here to better understand the taste and expectations of Malaysian carbuyers.
Five new models will be launched in 2010, the 3008, 5008, 308 CC, RCZ and T33 sedan. The 3008 is a crossover while the 5008 is Peugeot’s version of the Citroen Grand C4 Picasso. Moving on, the 308 CC is a metal folding roof coupe-convertible while the RCZ is a compact sports coupe that follows the Audi TT’s template, shown in the metal at last year’s Frankfurt show.
These cars are all fresh offerings, even in Europe, and the RCZ isn’t even on sale yet in the UK, so this blitz reflects our market’s newfound importance. No chance of these cars coming in with Peugeot’s excellent HDi diesels however; we’ll have to make do with petrol engines from the Prince family.
The T33’s impending launch has been covered on this blog before. It’s essentially a 206 Sedan with an updated nose, but Wertans won’t confirm the 207 Sedan name. To be launched by the end of the third quarter this year, it will come with a Peugeot badge (not Naza) and a 1.6-litre engine paired to a “Porsche” Tiptronic gearbox, likely to be the same drivetrain as the 308 VTi. With a sales target of 500 units per month, the T33 is set to be Naza’s bulk seller, taking over from the phased out 206 Bestari.
Meanwhile, the 408 that was launched hours ago in China, codenamed T73, could come in the near future. Wertans said that Peugeot “is seriously thinking about it, but it’s too early to tell”. The booted 308 is not a replacement for the 407, and isn’t likely to carry the “408” name in every market it’s sold in – besides China, it will go to Brazil, Russia, India and other developing markets.
These plans will further boost Peugeot’s Asia sales, which grew by 45% in 2009. The French company hopes to expand in emerging markets, as its core market becomes highly saturated (currently 60% of total sales are from Western Europe, where it holds a 7.2% market share).
The new lion logo, “Motion & Emotion” tagline, and design language previewed by the gorgeous SR1 concept forms part of a “major repositioning for the next decade” said Wertans. The SR1 features styling cues that will be on Peugeot’s next generation of cars (no more “big mouth” grille) while the part car, part scooter BB1 concept is confirmed for production. “It’s not if, but when it’s coming to Malaysia,” said Wertans of the four-seat BB1, although he must have looked very, very far ahead when saying that.
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Welcome to Malaysia.
RHD?? what is that?
w_lighter said,
January 26, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
RHD?? what is that?
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Cars with drivers on the right. Like every single car in Malaysia.
this is very interesting news indeed. i dont really get it how NAZA and Pug can sell vehicles with such competitive prices. some people say its about the tax waive because they assemble here in malaysia?
but i refer to the documents signed by Mat yaacop (in his capacity as the MoF minister) few years back, the waived-tax price of vehicles doesnt really match the price NAZA selling its fleet. i mean, NAZA is selling higher than the non tax prices i saw on that documents. however still lower than any model (similar ones) selling outside.
i would say they got partial tax waive or something.
and people that RcZ i think will be priced out of many hands. that beauty i believe wont come cheap.
Hmmmmm if the price and servicing is right, buy the 207 sedan I will
This is outstanding, outstanding, outstanding news for the Malaysian auto-market.
Not only do we have decently priced 308, 407, but the 308CC, 3008, 5008 will be competitively priced too! Excellent.
Any idea on what prices would be for a 3008 and 5008 turbo?
I'm tabling for 125k-135k for 3008 and 140k for 5008? Seems correct to you for locally assembled cars??
RHD=Right Hand Drive
well at least good news for pug fan… kinda
look forward to it, recently Peugeot’s sales well in malaysia esp 308 which hit at right price, but still worry about reliability.
1st pic lokkalike Audi
last picture lookalike Trishaw…
indeeed very good news. great for our country economy and employment would be higher! more ppl got jobs, lesser crime.. good move naza! thats the way to do business.. 2 thumbs up!
Finally the Lion wakes up!!
nice..
btw on another topic,i saw proton saga cars that covered on a truck that have a writing on it "green propulsion"..anybody knows about it?
good move!!!…..err,,anybody want to talk about naza after sell…(like alwaysss…)
just improve on the after sales service and cheaper parts, every pug will be selling like hot cake..
finally some good news
drMpower said,
January 26, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
this is very interesting news indeed. i dont really get it how NAZA and Pug can sell vehicles with such competitive prices. some people say its about the tax waive because they assemble here in malaysia?
but i refer to the documents signed by Mat yaacop (in his capacity as the MoF minister) few years back, the waived-tax price of vehicles doesnt really match the price NAZA selling its fleet. i mean, NAZA is selling higher than the non tax prices i saw on that documents. however still lower than any model (similar ones) selling outside.
i would say they got partial tax waive or something.
and people that RcZ i think will be priced out of many hands. that beauty i believe wont come cheap.
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Maybe they decide to cut down on profit….i know japs cars made huge profit in malaysia….maybe conti's need to cut to compete price wise….mind sending the documents by mat yaacop as reference?? i too would like to investigate the logic
Can sell lah! if they have good after sales services and more service center.
I hope Peugeot take over the aftersales part of the business.
Good for the economy. But still, there will be no technology transfer involved. And won't help much to spur upstream manufacturing of components except for tyres and windscreens.Sampai bila la kita ni nak jadi tukang pasang je.
mr chaos,
that document i believe was around between 2006 and 2007. its a full list of cars being sold in malaysia WITHOUT tax whatsoever. i believe thats the selling price of the vehicles BY the MANUFACTURERS.
due to the current political imbalance nowadays, allow me to ask this question:
wey, no thanks to gomen ah? or mahadir kah? hes the one gave green light for NAZA.
keh keh keh
ps- i lived very near to Gurun, and i've been going across NAZA's manufacturing plant for gods-know-how-many times. in that assembly field(got grass like and size like 20-30 football field big) there are like thousands of NAZA/KIA vehicles. unfortunately very near also to NAZA plant, there got petronas' gas/chemical plant. so my question now, since the air there is full of impurities (mainly chemical), will the paint will get damaged? u know maybe in the long run or something, the paint might be ruin?
roar~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i will start saving money for RCZ…
hopefully their price is below RM150k…
hehe..
drMPower,
As an engineer, I believed the fact that plants can built around there are up to the requirements in their pollutant output. Depends on what chemical stuff they poop out there, worst case scenario would be mercury, dioxin, cadmium and other heavy metal pollutants.
Before the car would "react" to those airborne pollutants, I am more concern on the worker's health on the Naza plant. If there are no reported case of worker death due to heavy metal poisoning, dioxin poisoning etc, which is highly unlikely, I truly believe the car would too.
Car paint are spray through the body panel through aniodic reaction, which means the every single paint molecule they sprayed will stick on the body panel. Unless scratching, denting, fretting or body panel imperfection engineered occured, the paint can last for many many years.
Now the bigger cat (lion) is coming to the home of a smaller cat (tiger). This jungle (Malaysian car market) is not big enough for both of them, so most likely the smaller cat will need to find new hunting ground in order to stay alive.
Make it as cheap as those Forte's Naza are rebadging. Don't care if its called a Naza T33 or whatever, this is very good news.
Lets hope the government does not shun Peugeot away with its policies..
RCZ!
Time for NAZA to payback to Malaysian. create more jobs, bring more money inside our beloved country.
Sincerely hope that Naza can make it big with Peugeot….. since Malaysia (government?) has chased away other potential Euro car manufacturers.
It is good for the country and Naza if Malaysia is the hub for Peugeot.
Also, after sales service has losta room for improvement.
That 3008 looks really-really interesting as its different from what we're use to here in Malaysia. I'd seriously consider one if it was priced right. Btw, good move NAZA…
wah.. it offer a lot of choic to consumer!
RCZ look nice and but duuno how is the price.. if almost same as the TT, then will be LPPL.
The 3008 is nice too, got more space compare to 308!
apon said,
January 26, 2010 @ 10:41 pm
RHD=Right Hand Drive
__________________________________________________________________________
i drive with both hands… ekekekekek..
anyway, bravo to Naza for such a deal with peugoet. no other party able to do it – not Hicom, not DRB, not Sime, not UMW.
Damn good sexy curve of RCZ!
good news. gov should focus more on getting european maker to make malaysia hub for asean/asia. let be thailand take all the american and japs. hope vw will make use of proton facilities here as well. local component maker should also try to find lubang to supply small small parts, not only depend on p1 and p2.
gov also should push daihatsu/toyota to make p2 as hub for their asean region. not only to milk from malaysian market but to export as well, otherwise, treat them just like other jap maker.
thanks bobby. that kinda shed some light on confusion whether the paint might be done because of their reaction to chemical air popped out from petronas plant.
wooooooooootttttttttttttt yeah! at last….the resurgence of the lion yet again in Malaysia!
our roads will be flooded with beautiful peugeots that we might think we're in europe! :)
si possible, je veux travailler chez Peugeot maintenant!!!
vive le mouvement et l'émotion!!!!
vive le peugeot!!!
yes..bring in more models please. i'm sick of H and T only. I need more choices.
No HDI!…can't they just mod the engine to be suitable for our stone age Euro2 diesel like what being done by BMW?
RCZ locally assembled…nice…..wonder what the price would be….RM160-170k?
dzat,
i'm sure all would like the HDi to come here, myself included, but would not be a good business move.
as long as they choose to do increase their business here is already tres, tres fantastique!!!!
vive le mouvement et l’émotion!!!!
vive le peugeot!!!
great news
yehaaaa…welcome pug
dzat and barca,
According to Mr. Wertans: "we cannot wait to come into Malaysia with our diesels, but it's not just the fuel quality, but the customers as well, who are not ready for diesel. As soon as Naza tells us 'we're ready', we'll jump in"
It's true that the majority of Malaysian carbuyers don't know about or have not experienced modern diesels before, and still think of oil burners as smelly, smoky things. With this in mind, perhaps they think that it's not worth the hassle.
Datuk Kamarulzaman Darus .. all the best !!!
ASEAN RHD only?
What about Philippines and Vietnam?
The local distributor of Peugeot disappeared about 2 years ago. The very very few Peugeots in the country are currently serviced by Volvo dealers.
linear_system said,
January 26, 2010 @ 11:04 pm
nice..
btw on another topic,i saw proton saga cars that covered on a truck that have a writing on it “green propulsion”..anybody knows about it?
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it is probably the Proton Saga Electric vehicle project that is being testing. try google the Proton saga green propulsion concept.
HDI? Yes we are.
For the general public, its just a matter of education (and marketing). We can use an actual case study of a re-introduction of diesels to Canada by VW and its Jetta 1.9TDI.
Market a car that can go 1000kms per tank, and diesel will catch on very quickly. Now, on the other hand, is how consumers deal with the dissimilar road taxation. If anything, the government is the worst hindrance to diesel penetration.
If proton want to really be relevent again, go stick something like a modern Peugeot 1.6HDI 110 in the Exora. It cures whatever ill currently inflicts it now (lack of torque and rather thirsty city fuel consumption) and watch it be a top seller. The 160HDI makes almost 270Nm on overboost, which is 120 more than the CPS.
i want cheap peugeot gti
Glad to see more LION on the road! Honda & Toyota dealers are going to get uncomfort on their seat now..as for the nissan?.forget about the TAN CHONG…
Danny,
thanks for your reply and on Wertan's insight.
Wertan's reply proves that all Peugeot need is the cue and they'll go for broke despite the murkiness of AFTA. It'd be very, very interesting to see what the future brings for french and conti cars in Malaysia from this point onwards.
vive le mouvement et l’émotion!!!!
vive le peugeot!!!
i want pegeot!!! very nice car ever in the world…hehe