TD2000 Passes 100th Unit Milestone
TD Cars (M) Sdn Bhd today passed a milestone with the completion of the 100th unit of the TD2000. The classically styled sportscar, with its resemblance to the MG TD of the 1950s, has been manufactured by Automotive Conversion Engineering Sdn Bhd (ACE) at the Glenmarie Industrial Estate in Selangor since late 1999. ACE is the EON unit which specialises in converting Protons into long-wheelbase limousines.
“By the global standards of the automotive industry, 100 units is just a few hours’ production but that applies to mass-produced models,” said Dato’ Dr Jaafar Ali, Chairman of TD Cars (M) Sdn Bhd, at the special ceremony today.
“The TD2000 is not a mass-produced model and is, in fact, hand-crafted just like the most exclusive limousines. Unlike the mass-produced, high-volume models which all look the same, the TD2000 can be individually customised to what our buyers want. Thus, it takes longer to make each unit and so 100 units after just over a year of operation is not unusual.”
The 100th TD2000, finished in metallic blue, was sold to Rotary Club for its fund-raising activities for charity. The symbolic key to the car was presented to the club president by Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Mohd Saleh bin Sulong, Chairman of EON Bhd. The EON Chairman also presented symbolic keys to another two units of TD2000 to the two winners of the ‘hole-in-one’ prizes at a recent golf tournament.
At the same event, held at the EON complex in Glenmarie estate, TD Cars (M) Sdn Bhd also signed a distributorship agreement with its first overseas importer, Cycle & Carriage Industries (1986) Pte Ltd in Singapore. According to a TD Cars official, the necessary approvals from the Singapore authorities have been obtained and the first 18 units will be shipped to the republic shortly.
“The Singapore market is just the first of many export markets we are looking at,” said Dato Dr Jaafar Ali. “Although we are already in advanced stages of negotiations with many overseas distributors who are keen to sell the TD2000, there are still issues of vehicle standards to be met in some places and this takes a bit of time. It is not that the TD2000 cannot meet the standards because it is already certified to meet the tough Australian Design Rules, but it is more a matter of going through the processes of application.”
He added that the company is planning to sell the TD2000 in many countries which use righthand drive vehicles and hopes to even export them to UK in the future.
According to Datuk Adzmi Abdul Wahab, Managing Director of EON, one unit of the TD2000 will soon be sent to the UK because a British customer who was in Malaysia for the F1 GP had seen it and made the purchase while he was here.
The TD2000 was originally conceived in Australia in the mid-1980s and TD Cars (M) Sdn Bhd, which was formed in 1999, acquired all the rights to the design and transferred manufacture to Malaysia. Although the fibreglass-bodies car uses a Toyota 3S-FE 2.0-litre engine supplied by Toyota Motor Corporation, 53% of its components are sourced locally.
