New 2012 Isuzu D-Max Revealed

We have posted on spyshots of the 2012 Isuzu D-Max earlier. Well the wait is over. Yesterday, Isuzu held a media preview of the new D-Max in Thailand.

Interior is similar to its sister car Chevrolet Colorado

More information can be found here.

Chevrolet Colorado - Coming Next Month

GM Thailand announced that its Rayong plant in Thailand is getting ready to start producing the new generation Colorado pickup, which will roll-off the production line sometime next month. Not only is the Colorado built in GM Thailand's Rayong plant, but the 4-cylinder Duramax diesel engine is also built in the same plant. The Duramax engines will come in both 2.5-liter and 2.8-liter capacity, featuring overhead cams, turbocharging and durable aluminum cylinder heads.

Body in white shells of the pre-production Colorado models.

In developing the vehicle, the Colorado programme's chief engineer Roberto Rempel and his team lived in Thailand to fully understanding the operating conditions and usage patterns of Thai truck users, the largest truck buyers outside of USA.

“The hard work for this program has been done, and we are incredibly pleased with the results,” Rempel said. “This is a world-class truck that will appeal to buyers not just in the heavily concentrated truck markets of Southeast Asia, but around the world.

“We know customers of this type of vehicle want a workhorse and a daily-use vehicle all in one, so our product has to deliver. We have benchmarked the toughest, most flexible vehicles around the world. When you combine that approach with our detailed consideration of global expectations, we are confident the new Colorado will be a winner.”

To prepare GM's existing Rayong facility for the big task ahead, GM invested US$300 million in plant upgrades, including retooling of the entire vehicle assembly line. A new robotic automated large press line was also added while an existing press line had its automation upgraded. The new press line can produce seven panels per minute or 2.3 million panels per year. Laser scanning technology has also been adopted to ensure precise build quality.

The body shop also had all new tooling and robotic automated lines have been added, while the paint shop received a major upgrade to existing tooling and automated spray robot’s. The plant’s general assembly area has been completely changed to accommodate a new lean material delivery system, a new Dynamic Vehicle Tester, new tooling and checking equipment and a new vehicle test track, to ensure build quality to world class standards.

This week, the plant completed final build checks on pre-production Colorado models, with series production to commence soon.

There are currently 3400 employee’s onsite at GM’s Rayong facility. The facility at full capacity can produce up to 180,000 vehicles per year. Also produced in the same Rayong plant is the Chevrolet Cruze and Captiva SUV.

Also launching next month in Thailand is the new Ford Ranger. The truck market has been rather dull this year. The two new entrants should be heat things up a bit. The Isuzu D-Max, the second best selling truck in Thailand is also rumoured to be renewed late next year, but details are still sketchy thus far. The king of all trucks - the Toyota Hilux is already in its 6th year and its replacement won't be due until late 2014 / early 2015. But don't be too quick to count out the old girl. As Toyota Australia senior executive director of sales and marketing recently said, “Contrary to what some commentators are saying, there is plenty of fight left in the old HiLux.” The sales data proves it. Despite its age, the Hilux is hardly showing any sign of slowing down, and certainly no sign of it relinquishing its top spot on the sales chart anytime soon.

Toyota Enters Japanese Kei Car Market With Pixis

Daihatsu is a minicar specialist under the umbrella of the greater Toyota Motor Co. empire. In the past, the arrangement was for Daihatsu to manage the Japanese domestic market "kei" minicar segment while leveraging on Toyota's resources. Daihatsu can tap onto Toyota's immense resources and the kei car segment will be Daihatsu's turf and Toyota would stay away, so to speak. In return, Daihatsu will also supply cars to Toyota, mainly to its overseas subsidiary / joint venture companies, especially in developing South East Asian markets. The Toyota Avanza (Daihatsu Xenia) and Toyota Rush (Daihatsu Terios) are two of such examples. That arrangement however changed in September 2010 when Toyota entered a minicar OEM agreement with Daihatsu. Under the agreement, Daihatsu will supply Toyota with 3 kei car models. In other words, the kei car segment is no longer exclusively Daihatsu's to play. The first of the 3 vehicles born out of this new agreement was recently announced by Toyota as the Toyota Pixis Space, essentially a rebadged Daihatsu Move Conte. The two remaining models are unknown but is rumoured to be the Hijet kei truck and Hiject Cargo kei van. Out of this arrangement, Toyota hopes to squeeze out 60,000 units of additional sales in Japan annually.

Below is the recently launched Toyota Pixis Space. The Pixis is Toyota's first kei car. There are two main variants, the standard Pixis Space and the Pixis Space Custom. Both cars look like a scaled down version of boxy looking Toyota's xB (Scion xB). The Pixis comes with 660cc engine with engine idle start-stop function, and has a fuel economy rating of 25.5 km/l tested under the Japanese 10-15 cycle.

Pixis Space X

Pixis Space Custom G

The Pixis Space is a rebadged version of Daihatsu Move Conte. The Move Conte is one of the two body styles available for the Japanese market Daihatsu Move.

Standard Daihatsu Move

Daihatsu Move Conte

Kei cars or kei vehicles is a specific vehicle taxation bracket outlined by Japanese regulations. The definition of kei vehicles is prescribed by the Japanese Road Transport Vehicle Act enforcement guidelines of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. At present, the maximum specifications for kei vehicles are a length of 3.40m, width of 1.48m, height of 2.00m and a displacement of less than 660cc.

Since 2007, Daihatsu is the No.1 selling kei vehicle brand in Japan. Sales of kei vehicles in Japan is around 1.7 million units a year, making it the largest vehicle segment in the Japanese car market. Out of these, Daihatsu sells around 600,000 units of kei vehicles annually. Kei vehicles benefit from lower excise duty, lower insurance premiums as well as cheaper mandatory parking spot purchasing fee (compulsory for every new car purchase, rates differ from region to region) and lower weight tax. Added together, the financial incentive makes operating a kei car significantly lower than regular sized cars, thus explains their popularity.

City Facelift - Differences with the outgoing City

A follow up to our earlier post regarding the Honda City face lift, or minor model change in Honda lingo. We expect the facelifted City to make its debut in Malaysia before 2011 closes. Below is a compilation of shots showing the main differences between the current City and facelifted City. Needless to say, the differences are very minor. The facelifted model is at the top, while the current model is always shown after. Thanks to reader Anonymous for the heads up.

Note the grille, front bumper air dam and fog lamp surrounds.

Facelift model feature wider separation between the grille slates.

New tail lamp cluster and a different lower bumper design.

Top range models will feature a different wheel design.

Blue lighting for the instrument cluster, instead of the current model's amber lit display.

Paddle shifters. Only available on the top range SV specs variant.

ECO indicator to help you drive in a more economical manner. Standard on all variants for the Thai market City.

Modulo accessories package (Thai market)

Below is the TV commercial for the Thai market City.

McLaren Automotive announces Asia Pacific business plan

On the race weekend of the 2011 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman of McLaren Automotive and McLaren Group hosted a press conference and announced the formation of McLaren Automotive Asia Pte Ltd, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary and Asia Pacific regional office based in Singapore. McLaren Automotive Asia Pte Ltd will be responsible for all of McLaren Automotive’s Asia Pacific operations, including importation, distribution, logistics, sales, marketing, technical support and financial services for McLaren road cars. Around 10 employees will make up the initial team at McLaren's Singapore office.

At the moment, McLaren has no official retail representation in Asia Pacific, but 5 McLaren retail outlets are set to commence operations by the end of this year. The five are :

McLaren Hong Kong – Sime Darby
McLaren Osaka – Hakko Group
McLaren Tokyo – MT International
McLaren Singapore – Wearnes Automotive
McLaren Sydney – Trivett

Malaysian readers will of course be familiar with Sime Darby, the diversified conglomerate and distributor of Ford, Hyundai, Land Rover, Alfa Romeo in Malaysia and operator of Auto Bavaria, the largest BMW dealership in the country. Sime Darby also owns Rolls Royce dealerships in Hong Kong (Goodwood Motors Limited) and Macau (BMW Concessionaires (Macau) Limited).

Wearness Automotive is a Singapore based multi-brand franchise company. The company runs VW (Wearnes VW) and Volvo Cars (Swedish Marque) dealerships in Malaysia. It is also the sole Bugatti Partner from Southeast Asia and is the Bentley distributor for Singapore and Indonesia.

The first three directors of McLaren Automotive Asia Pte Ltd are Ron Dennis, Peter Lim, and Greg Levine.

Of course, Ron Dennis needs no introduction. Peter Lim (below) is Singaporean investor and is Forbes' 8th richest person in Singapore. His stakes include fashion retailer FJ Benjamin, investment firm Rowskey and Healthway Medical, a chain of clinics. In August 2011, Peter Lim hit the headlines when Ron Dennis announced that Peter Lim made a "significant investment" in the company and will be inducted into McLaren Automotive Board of Directors with immediate effect. His exact share holding in the company is not revealed in any official McLaren press release.

Greg Levine (below) is the former head of Audi South Africa, and before that, he was Audi UK's Head of Operations. He was appointed McLaren Automotive's Sales and Marketing Director in January 2011.

Would be interesting to walk into a McLaren showroom first hand. We know that Ron Dennis is extremely paranoid about cleanliness, minimalism and fuss free designs. It was rumoured that the interior designer of McLaren Technology Center had to fought hard with Ron Dennis to justify why putting a stationary holder on the desk is necessary and does not add to clutter. The floor on which Ron's cars are made is quite likely to be cleaner than your house's dining table.

Reflection from the production floor!

McLaren Automotive's showroom in Germany

No stupid flower pots, no specs stand, no brochure stand, no banners or posters.

Below is the presentation video shown during the press conference in Singapore.

Nissan and Mitsubishi extends collaboration in Japan

Nissan and Mitsubishi has announced their mutual agreement to expand the scope of their existing OEM supply agreements for the Japanese market to include the Nissan Fuga and Mitsubishi MINICAB-MiEV mini commercial van. Under this agreement, Nissan will start supplying Mitsubishi with its Fuga sedan beginning summer 2012 (mid-2012), while Mitsubishi will in return, supply Nissan with its all-electric MINICAB-MiEV commercial van beginning early 2012.

Prior to this, Nissan had already agreed to supply its NV200 Vanette commercial van to Mitsubishi for the domestic Japanese market. On top of this, in June 2011 the two companies formed NMKV Co., Ltd., a joint venture to pull design and engineering resources of the two companies to produce minicars, an area which both companies have a relatively weak presence in. The Japanese domestic minicar (kei cars) segment is dominated by Suzuki and Toyota's subsidiary Daihatsu.

Nissan Fuga (Infiniti M in markets outside Japan)

Mitsubishi MINICAB-MiEV

Note that this agreement is limited only to the Japanese market and will NOT have any impact on markets outside of Japan. Malaysian readers should refrain from linking this with the recently announced Proton-Mitsubishi collaboration. Although you can bet the usual adolescent Internet forum / blogger trolls are already talking about this as the next Perdana.

Mitsubishi Galant. Discontinued in Japan, only on sale in North America. The last in-house developed Galant.

Mitsubishi have been struggling in the mid-size / D-segment sedan market for nearly a decade already. Mitsubishi Motors is but a relatively small motor division within the diversified industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi Group. It does not have pockets as deep of Toyota, Honda or even GM and Ford to develop as many different product lines simultaneously. No surprise that Mitsubishi's Galant sedan is finding it hard to keep up with the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata. In the USA (the most important mid-size sedan market), even domestic American models like Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu are pushing the ageing Galant out of the market. In Canada, the Galant was discontinued in 2010 while in USA, Mitsubishi North America have confirmed that the current Galant is the last generation to be made at the company's Illinois plant. The Galant is already at the end of its lifecycle with no replacement in sight. In Australia, a variation of the Galant is sold as the 380 sedan, tailored to Aussie taste to square up against the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, but sales were poor and it was discontinued in 2008.

In Japan, Mitsubishi have completely zero presence in this segment. Mitsubishi's sedan line-up for Japan stops at the Lancer. So a rebadged Nissan Fuga is a sensible temporary solution.

Nissan NV200 Vanette

Mitsubishi Delica L300. Mitsubishi's last 1-ton commercial van

In the commercial van segment, Mitsubishi has not had any replacement since its Delica L300 was discontinued in Japan (it remains on sale in some developing countries). So again, a rebadged Nissan NV200 will be a good fit.

Nissan Fuga Hybrid

The Nissan Fuga is frequently mentioned by many as a potential replacement for the Proton Perdana. Personally I never believed in that story. There may be some background to this but it was very clear right from the start that there can never be a sound business case build around a sports oriented rear-wheel drive sedan for the mainstream Malaysian market. It's not about a couple of enthusiasts raving about a Proton rear-wheel drive sedan. It's about keeping factory production lines running, and that means building a sustainable business case, giving the dealers a product that can be sold at least in the high 3-digit figures every month. Some say it will be imported (meaning prices nearing RM150k?) in small numbers and sold only to government officials, but again, this is completely illogical. Why do you need an OEM collaboration just to import some low volume for government use? Whatever little units the government buy / don't buy, Infiniti's dealers in China can sell a year worth Malaysian government fleet allocation in less than a week. Why would Nissan see the deal as of any use to them. The best statement is made by industry analysts, again. Read the full report here.

AmResearch said Proton would initially offer Fuga as a replacement for the Government's fleet of vehicles. “The Nissan Fuga will likely be imported as completely-built-up units and Tan Chong Motor, as Nissan's franchise holder, will get a tiny cut from sales.”

Anyway, word on the street is that the Nissan Fuga as a Proton Perdana replacement is already shelved, as expected.

Infiniti M

Plus, Nissan has already announced that it will be introducing its luxury Infiniti brand here in Malaysia by end 2011. The Nissan Fuga is sold outside of Japan as the Infiniti M. The Infiniti brand will be distributed by Inspired Motor Sdn Bhd, a divison of the Tan Chong Group. The first Infiniti models sold here is rumoured to be the FX SUV but considering luxury sedans outsold luxury SUVs, we do expect Infiniti sedans to be introduced in due time. It wouldn't make any sense for Nissan to distribute the very expensive Infiniti M via Tan Chong, and then sell the exact same as a government fleet vehicle directly via Proton.

So we can now bury the whole Proton Fuga for good. Meanwhile, why can't government officials travel in a Proton Exora? It's a pretty decent vehicle. And since the government is unable to clear the mess our domestic automotive industry is in, they should be made to travel in cars that they made the rakyat ride in. It's not like they accomplish a lot from all their travels anyway. There is no strong justification for our MPs to travel in an imported luxury sports sedan. Plus, in the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron have drastically slashed budget for chauffeur driven cars and instructed his ministers to take public transport, just like everyone else. Fat chance of that happening here.