KARACHI: Changan Automobiles, China and Master Motors Ltd (MML) on Friday entered into a joint venture (JV) for the indigenisation of local automobile industry with a Chinese investment of $100 million.

Assistant President Changan Automobile and General Manager of Overseas Business Development Department, Wang Huanran and Chairman MML, Nadeem Malik signed the agreement.

Mr Huanran said the company is excited to see the market potential in Pakistan as well as export opportunities.

Plant in Karachi to be up by December this year

Changan has selected Pakistan as the base country for right-hand drive vehicles (RHD) which will be exported to RHD countries.

Mr Malik said Pakistan has huge potential in terms of motorisation index since it is ranked 160th in the world with only 18 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

On the occasion, CEO MML Danial Malik said, “We aim to bring value and cutting-edge technology to every segment of the market, with an emphasis on SUVs, MPVs, and LCVs, followed by passenger cars and electric vehicles”.

This JV will create thousands of jobs in the industry and promote Pakistani vendor base through technology transfer via localisation, he added.

He said the plant, with a capacity of 30,000 units in double shifts, would be established in Karachi and start production in December 2018.

The company would start with few thousand units a year and would reach full production capacity within three years’ time. The company is in the process of selecting dealers by ensuring services and spare parts availability in all major cities.

Master Group has been working in the automotive industry for two decades and produces trucks and buses. So far it has sold over 17,000 vehicles in Pakistan.

Changan is the largest selling Chinese brand for 10 years in a row, touching an annual volume of 2.870 million units with wide range of world class products in LCV, SUV, MPV and passenger car segments through JVs with Suzuki, Ford, PSA, Mazda, Bosch, Aisin and Scheffler.

Changan has been ranked for No.1 R&D capability for continuous 10 years with nine R&D centers in China, Italy, Japan, UK and USA.

It has partnered with internet services firm Tencent to form a subsidiary to develop the ‘internet of vehicles’ (IoV) and is the first company to introduce Level-2 autonomous technology in mass production cars in China.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018