Big Plans Ahead for Land Rover in Malaysia

Following the lull in activity last year after BMW sold off Rover and Land Rover to Ford, Land Rover’s distributor/importer in Malaysia, Land Rover (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (LRM), has big plans ahead and intends to enhance its dealer network in the country. Although LRM had been ‘integrated’ with Auto Bavaria early last year while the brand was still in the BMW Group as part of a global exercise known as ‘Group Solus’ which aimed to unify retail activities for the BMW, Rover and Land Rover brands, the separation has allowed LRM to regain its independence although it remains parts of the Tractors Malaysia Group (as Auto Bavaria also is).

These new developments were revealed by Ali Shuib, Managing Director of LRM, during a media preview and test-drive of the new Land Rover Freelander 2.5V6 Automatic and TD4 Turbodiesel models. Encik Ali said that as part of the development of the Land Rover brand in Malaysia, the company would be striving to increase its coverage so as to increase convenience for customers around the country.

“In the first phase, we will re-develop our Petaling Jaya outlet into a ‘Land Rover Centre’. This is based on a successful retail concept first developed in the USA and also implemented in Australia,” he said. “This Centre will encapsulate the aspirations for a sporting lifestyle and active outdoor life which Malaysians are having.” He said that the company is still studying the concept but hinted that it could include an off-road course as well although it would be in another location.

On the introduction of the new Freelander models, which have retail prices starting from RM195,000 (without insurance), Encik Ali said that they would be a good complement to the bigger Discovery TD5 which has increased in popularity in the past year. He said that sales of the Discovery, which is locally assembled, had been very good last year and the company had actually run out of stock for a while. However, fresh stocks will become available shortly when assembly resumes. During 2001, LRM expects to sell 850 vehicles in total (including imported models), a 54% increase of the volume in 2000 and almost 7 times the volume of 1999.

“It’s a modest figure but we see the market growing and continue to believe it is a viable business for the Tractors Malaysia Group,” said Gee Boon Kee, Motor Group Director of Tractors Malaysia. “That’s why we are fully in support of LRM’s plans to invest in network expansion and the creation of the Land Rover Centre.”

While high import duties presently bump up the price of the new Freelander to as much as RM288,000 (without insurance) for the 2.5-litre petrol V6 version, there is a possibility that the prices could be lower in the future. This is because Land Rover, which is part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, will be assembling the model in Thailand from the end of this year.

“I can confirm that the board recently decided that assembly of the Freelander model will be done in Thailand from the fourth quarter of 2001,” revealed Andrew Crawford, Area Manager for Land Rover Asia. “We expect to make use of the AICO scheme which would be beneficial for regional operations.”

Mr Crawford was referring to the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation scheme which a number of automobile assemblers in the region are making use of as a means to distribute production. Under this scheme, which must be approved by the countries involved, there can be an exchange of components under a special provision. One example is Volvo’s assembly of S80 bodyshells in its Thai factory and S40/V40 bodyshells in Swedish Motor Assemblies in Malaysia. The bodyshells are exchanged between Thailand and Malaysia and both models are sold in the countries. For the manufacturer, it helps to also reduce the cost of investment in jigs and tooling as only one set is needed.

Mr Crawford said that Land Rover Asia is looking at the possibility of using the Volvo factory in Thailand to assemble the Freelander and it would appear that since Discovery assembly is being done in Malaysia, an AICO arrangement could thus be possible.

In any case, the assembly of the Freelander in an ASEAN country is good news for the future if Malaysia does eventually open up the market to vehicles from other ASEAN countries, as agreed upon for its participation in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Entire text of this article, as with all other articles in AUTOWORLD.COM.MY, are copyright and reproduction is not allowed without permission. This notice is being re-emphasised especially for the attention of the UK-based website which has copied materials from AUTOWORLD.COM.MY without permission.