Subaru announces CKD deal with Tan Chong
This just came in. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), the maker of Subaru automobiles, has announced today of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) being signed with the Tan Chong Group for CKD assembly of Subaru vehicles in Malaysia.
While generally associated with the Nissan brand, Tan Chong’s partnership with Subaru, via its subsidiary TC Subaru Sdn Bhd, dates back to 1987, and the Group is currently responsible for the sales and distribution of Subaru vehicles across ASEAN, covering Cambodia, Southern China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Parties signing the agreement are FHI on one side, at TC Subaru on the other. The actual task of assembling the cars will fall to Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd, which already has a history of previously assembly Subaru vehicles in 1986.
The press release from Subaru states two things. First is that ‘production will begin in October 2012 at an existing production facility of TCMA with a production of 5,000 units a year’. Second is that ‘Subaru compact SUVs will be locally-produced and marketed in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia through the Subaru sales and distribution network of Tan Chong Group’.
We have not verified this with sources in Tan Chong, but our belief is that the ‘compact SUV’ in question is very likely to be the Forester. The ‘existing production facility’ is also not specified, but an educated guess would suggest it is TCMA’s older plant in Segambut, currently tasked to assemble older Nissan models and Bison trucks.
Picture: Official Fuji Heavy Industries release.
