DRB-Hicom Commercial Vehicles (DHCV), the authorised importer and distributor of Tata commercial vehicles in Malaysia, has announced the introduction of three new models for 2018 and a CKD local-assembly programme in the mid-term.
Since the brand’s relaunch here in 2015, DHCV has sold 654 units of Tata commercial vehicles, consisting of pick-up trucks, light trucks and prime movers. That puts Tata in tenth place amongst a total of 28 competing brands in the commercial vehicle (CV) category, which includes pick-up trucks, trucks, prime movers, panel vans and buses.
“We are ready to move up and be a bigger player in the commercial vehicle category and in selected segments. The last three years have been a learning curve for us. Come 2018, we are confident we have the right products in terms of technology, affordability and durability to be truly competitive in the commercial vehicle category,” said Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah, COO, automotive, distribution, manufacturing and engineering, DRB-Hicom.
“We will be offering three all-new products – two in the light commercial vehicle segment and one in the small pick-up segment,” the former Proton CEO added.
“Small pick-up constitutes 2% of the total pick-up segment. Our objectives are to offer customers an alternative and a highly competitive product. The Tata small pick-up is a highly successful product, many of which are reliably plying the roads in other regional markets. We are confident it will help us gain a fair share of this promising and growing segment,” said Chin Tan Hee, COO of DHCV. The company’s current pick-up truck offering is the Tata Xenon.
DHCV says that plans for local assembly are in place and will be implemented “at the appropriate time in the near future.” Having CKD models will also open up DHCV/Tata to business opportunities in the public sector. Local assembly will be carried out at DRB- Hicom’s assembly plant in Pekan, Pahang. DHCV also aims to expand its network across Malaysia, including in Sabah and Sarawak. Tata customers are currently served by a network of 24 outlets nationwide.
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Well done DRB-Hicom & Tata India. Audi CKD next?!
Audi is a dying brand in Malaysia
Do not waste monies to invest in CKD and end up losing more
Well done? Most of the tata sales in malaysia is to DRB-HICOMs own subsidiaries. Most of the sales last year went to Pos Malaysia, which is a DRB-HICOM company. Sendiri jual sendiri beli.
TATA vehicles are realiable becoz its not china made.
Ipongs are realiable becoz its china made.
kakaka what a stupid as s hole you are. IPHONE assembled in china monitored and control by APPLE, a US company that own IPHONE. Volvo cars assembled in Malaysia doesn`t make Proton cars superior.
That is why TATA is not so reliable and not much sought after in comparing to more modern china makes
Tata’s revenues for 2017 was US$42 billion and it produced 9 million vehicles. Therefore it is one of the global motorvehicles giants. However they are not in competition with China at the moment. Their target market is mostly South Asia, Middle East and Africa.
How come TATA is not on the list for world most value brand then?
Indian make cars still got a long way to be accepted in south east and north east asia and europe markets.
Made in india , any good ?
This is an old car in India. Bring the latest one!
it’s a Waja pickup truck
Well Done DRB Hicom & Tata India but Malaysian people prefer to buy Toyota Hilux more reliable
Err actually the Tata is more reliable as it is one of the few trucks (Toyota included) that has been used in the desert dunes of the Middle East and the rough terrains of Africa without any problems. Its just that its not popular here because they are selling the not so attractive models
TATA makes trash cars that why can trashed in deserts and then throw away .
Remember TATA NEO that always catches fire
Better stick with China Cars at least never heard of any engines catches fire.
This is good news. If Tata can restart local assembly in Malaysia, Land Rover assembly may also restart in the near future.
Tata’s relationship with DRB-HICOM and Pekan goes back over 3 decades. Back in 1976, Tata built a lorry assembly plant in Pekan with partial funding from the Pahang royal family. The plant, called TIAP, built Tata lorries and trucks, many of which were supposedly employed in the logging industry. Some of the Pekan-assembled Tata models were even unique to Malaysia (you couldn’t buy it in India). The were tough and rugged, and cost less than the equivalent Mercedes-Benz lorries at the time. Until now, you can still see old 1970s Tata lorries on the roads.
Then in 1983, a company called Master Carriage bought the Tata plant, and renamed it AMM. This is where DRB came into the picture, as Master Carriage was affiliated with DRB. In the early 80s, DRB and HICOM had not yet merged. HICOM had the Proton plant in Shah Alam, while DRB had the AMM plant in Pekan. Only in 1996 did DRB and HICOM merge, and by then, both Proton and AMM had grown exponentially in size and prominence.
Meanwhile, between the 80s and 2000s, Tata still maintained some sporadic operations at AMM through its distributor, Scott & English. Some models like the LPT truck and Telcoline pick-up were assembled here, and a few AMM-built Telcolines were even exported to Australia. Tata had brought in their passenger cars to some local auto shows and even for testing, but they were never formally launched here.
Fast forward to this decade, where Tata has an assembly plant in Thailand, which exports Xenon pickup trucks to Malaysia. Tata also sells their passenger cars in Indonesia. But in Malaysia, Tata is still under-represented, and with the exploding popularity of Chinese commercial vehicles in Malaysia, Tata and DRB-HICOM will have to work extra hard to become relevant again, like they were 3 decades ago.
But Tata has some advantages over the China brands; they have a strong and reputable local partner (DRB-HICOM), and they have better brand recognition (they were here since the 1970s, and they own JLR). Most China brands do not have a proven local partner, and many have no real brand recognition here. As for Tata’s products themselves, I’m afraid that many Chinese brands can easily match or surpass any of Tata’s offerings, and the variety is larger too. As for reliability, both Chinese and Tata trucks can be found all over Africa and developing Asia, so reliability shouldn’t be a huge concern.
Good luck to DRB-HICOM and Tata (and Dato’ Harith) on the future plans. Jaguar and Land Rover Malaysia are depending on Tata Malaysia’s growth and success.
Get TATA to CKD Range Rover Sport PHEV. Then can use it to conquer Batu Caves steps.
Tata to CKD Jaguar F-Pace.
you can conquer Batu Caves just using your legs. No need 4w drive to conquer it. FYI Batu Caves stairs.
Yeah, well so as the 999 heaven steps, but that din stop LR from doing it, no?
The difference is, it is a religious site. So it might not be advisable to do so.
Stairways to heaven was more than just a religious site and that din stop them. A lil flexibility gips gud coverage no?
Why no airbags?