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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Volkswagen Polo as a national car soon ???

The Polo currently costs above RM100,000 but the plan put forward by VW to DRB-HICOM Bhd could see the locally-assembled Polo priced at below RM70,000.




POSSIBLE remodelling of Volkswagen Polo as a national car may happen in the next one to two years, a move OSK Research says could help Proton Holdings Bhd regain its market share.


Its analyst, Ahmad Maghfur Osman, said the timeline was apt as Proton Saga was nearing the end of its life cycle.

He was commenting on the Business Times article yesterday on the possibility of the Polo being a new small car for Proton.

Ahmad Maghfur said such a plan "will be a positive move in helping the national carmaker to recapture its market share".
Proton was dislodged from pole position when Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd launched its Myvi in 2006.

He noted that the Saga was still Proton's best-selling car, representing 12.3 per cent of the total industry volume and 46.8 per cent of Proton's domestic sales.

However, he added that the Saga was also nearing the end of its lifecycle.

In his research note, he did not rule out the possibility of Proton exporting the rebadged Polo to other markets in the Asean region as it would by then have complied with the minimum 60 per cent localisation of content to benefit from Asean Free Trade Area's zero per cent import duty.

"The fact that the rebadged Polo may potentially lead to huge volume catering to the export market would certainly benefit the autoparts sector as a whole."


He added that this would work in favour of autopart companies that had existing tie-ups with established global autopart OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and had Volkswagen as their key customer, such as Bosch and Autoliv.

Bosch and Autoliv are the technical partners of EP Manufacturing Bhd, which manufactures Bosch's braking module system, while MBM Resources Bhd is the manufacturer of Autoliv's airbags. 

"These two players will likely continue to supply parts to Proton. 

"However, the fact that the Saga will be an entirely new model may see some autopart vendors losing their contracts as DRB-HICOM becomes more stringent in selecting its vendors in an attempt to cut costs," said Ahmad Maghfur.


Source: Business Time Malaysia

1 comment:

  1. it is good to hear that Volkswagen Polo as a national car coming very soon. well, it is a very nice car, it has good and excellent features.its design is so awesome that can attract everyone . it has stunning looks . surely when this car will come in market,it will rock the market ambiance.
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