Malaysian-Made Naza Forza Entes Thai Car Market

BANGKOK, March 28 Asia Pulse - Another Malaysian-made car, the Naza Forza, enters the competitive Thai motor vehicle market Thursday, dislodging Proton Savvy as the cheapest car on the road in the kingdom.

The 1.1-litre compact with manual transmission, which was first launched in Malaysia as Sutera in 2006, is priced at 349,000 baht (US$11,109), almost 50,000 baht cheaper than the Savvy which made its debut here in November last year.

The Naza Forza was launched at the Bangkok International Motor Show which starts here today until April 6.

Sathit Techalapamnouy, managing director of Yontrakit Kia Motors which is the authorised distributor of Naza as well as Kia cars, said the company was impressed with Naza Group's achievement in Malaysia and decided to bring in the Naza Forza.

"When we saw Proton coming into Thailand, we approached Naza to tap the potential here. Being the third biggest vehicle leader in Malaysia, we are confident of Naza and its products," he told Bernama at the motor show.

Sathit said Forza was chosen to benefit from the low tariffs under the Asean Free Trade Area agreement, adding that it has about 70 percent local parts which contribued to the lower production cost.

However, only manual transmission cars are being made available for the initial phase as the group was also importing from Malaysia the 1.1-litre automatic Kia Picanto and priced at 449,000 baht.

The Naza Forza is based on a Chinese car called the Hafei Lobo and was developed by Naza with an investment of RM200 million (US$62.7 million).

Prior to Savvy's entry, the cheapest car was the Toyota Vios priced at almost 500,000 baht. Sathit said the company hoped to sell about 200 cars at the motor show and between 100 and 200 each a month at its 34 showrooms.

"We target smaller volume because Thai market is geared more towards automatic transmissions, with almost 95 percent of the cars on the road in that segment. But we hope to attract buyers who are concerned with the high oil price now," he said.

"The company, which distributes cars from seven different manufacturers including BMW, Audi, Kia and Citroen, plans to bring in more models developed by the Naza Group," he said.

(BERNAMA-OANA)

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