UD Trucks and Tan Chong Industrial Equipment SdnBhd (TCIE) recently rolled out the first-ever Malaysian assembled UD Croner medium duty truck. The local assembly was done at Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd (TCMA) located in Segambut which makes Malaysia the first Asia Pacific market outside of Japan to assemble the Croner. It is also one of the first times where a TCIE, a private distributor partner assembled a truck for UD Trucks.
A small ceremony officiating the roll out of the first unit was held recently with the attendance from the management teams and senior staffs of UD Trucks, TCIE and TCMA. The UD Croner was first launched in Malaysia in August 2017. This locally assembled, or CKD (Completely Knocked Down) UD Croner comes less than a year after that, which is a good thing as the hype generated from the launch would still be remembered by customers.
TCIE has announced that they intend to assemble 150 units of the Croner this year comprising of both manual and the optional automatic transmission variant for two models - the UD Croner PKE and Croner LKE. The Croner PKE caters for medium-heavy duty usage and is equipped with a 6-cylinder engine for regional and long haul. The smaller engined Croner LKE is a multi-purpose model for in-city and city-to-city distribution focusing on transport efficiency. More details are in our launch coverage article here.
According to the folks at TCIE (and TCMA), the specific assembly line to produce the locally-assembled UD Quester trucks cost RM1.5 million. The decision to do so was made about two years ago and was a strategic decision by the Tan Chong group to meet local market demands aside from supporting the local automotive industry in another way.
Aside from that, a further investment of RM4.5 million was also made to expand the total production capacity of TCMA to include CKD Croner, where part of the investment is used for expansion of assembly facilities including body and paint.
UD Trucks, contributed to knowledge sharing and training. Local engineers and technicians were given training and skills to enable efficient management of the expanded facility and to ensure a smooth roll-out of the locally-assembled UD Croner.
Speaking at the event, Filip Van den Heede, Managing Director Hub Malaysia, UD Trucks said, “(The) UD Croner is a versatile, reliable, safe and fuel-efficient medium-duty truck range that is developed with the Asian customers in mind. It is a truck range designed to deliver extra productivity and superior up time as it combined the best of three worlds, which are UD Trucks’ Japanese heritage and craftsmanship, Volvo Group’s proven technologies and TCIE’s local resourcing, expertise and market reach.”
“Our goal is to build the truck that our customers need for today and the future, and in doing so, we have taken numerous feedback from them in order to help them stay ahead of the competition. In Malaysia, cost efficiency and quality trucks are key factors to our customers. That is why, we are certain that with the availability of the locally-assembled UD Croner now, our customers will continue to enjoy all the strong features of the truck at a competitive price. In addition, they will also continue to receive thorough aftermarket service from our long-standing partner, TCIE,” said Van den Heede.
Tan Keng Meng, Executive Director, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd said, “Our capability in producing complete knocked-down UD Croner trucks from our factory has further cemented Tan Chong Group’s competency in offering full range of services for the truck industry, with assembling being a highly key and strategic expertise, ever since we successfully lined-off the heavy-duty UD Quester in 2016.”
“UD Trucks and Tan Chong Group have had a solid and highly successful 40-year partnership together, where we have worked and cooperated closely to introduce new products and services that deliver smart logistics to our customers in Malaysia,” he added.
“Our locally-assembled UD Croner trucks will not only continue to represent the hallmarks of what UD Trucks stands for, but it will also give operators all that is needed to work efficiently and effectively at an affordable price range. This is very important especially in a competitive market like Malaysia. This is what we want to aim for our customers, as their satisfaction and trust in us remain our top priorities,” said Tan.
As for sales and after sales services for UD Trucks, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment has an extensive network of 43 services centers and dealerships nationwide. Any purchase of UD trucks will be supported by UD Extra Mile Support services which include UD Genuine Service and Parts, UD Driver Training, UD Telematics and UD Trust Service Agreements for customers.
For more information on TCIE and UD Trucks, call 03-61899832 or head over to their outlets especially if you want to know more about how much cheaper are the prices and the specifications of the UD Croner trucks.
(From L-R) Jaclyn Loy, Chief Operating Office, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd, Teong Seng Kiang, Chief Operating Officer, Tan Chong Assemblies Sdn Bhd, Fabien Riviere-Cazaux, Croner KD Project Manager / Director, Plant Coordination Asia, Tan Keng Meng, Executive Director, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd, Filip Van den Heede, Managing Director Hub Malaysia, UD Trucks, Daniel Ho Wai Ming, Chief Financial Officer, Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd, Wong King Yoon, Chief Executive Officer, Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd, Tomoharu Takigawa, Quality Manager, UD Trucks, Herve Simonin, Vice President Industrial Development & Partners, UD Trucks, and Lawrence Lee Jiuun Shyan, Executive Director, Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd officiating the factory line-off of the first unit of UD Croner at TCMA, Segambut
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