KUALA LUMPUR: General Motors Corp (GM) unit General Motors Asia Pacific LLC, which signed a memorandum of understanding with DRB-HICOM Bhd to form HICOM-Chevrolet Sdn Bhd in August, may assemble Chevrolet models locally.

HICOM-Chevrolet managing director-designate Yukontorn Wisadkosin said the company was looking into it but no decision had been made yet.

GM has a 51% stake in the partnership and has management control. Previously, the sales and service of Chevrolet vehicles were done through Hicomobil Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of DRB-HICOM.

“Chevrolet models will continue to be assembled in Thailand and GM will rely on the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta), which under the Common Effective Preferential Tariff will see import duties reduced to between zero and 5% from Jan 1 for vehicles assembled in Asean,” Wisadkosin told a media briefing yesterday.

Wisadkosin said the partnership with DRB-HICOM reaffirmed GM's confidence in South-East Asia's largest motor vehicle market, which has an average annual sales of 500,000 vehicles.

She acknowledged that sales of Chevrolet models had suffered from a combination of tough local operating environment, quality perception and a disjointed supply of spare parts.

“The turning around of the Chevrolet brand in the country is part of GM's global strategy in identifying 11 emerging markets, of which three are in South-East Asia, including Malaysia,” she said.

Wisadkosin said the groundwork for the turnaround was being laid out and included strengthening the dealers' network, ensuring the smooth supply of spare parts and reinforcing after-sales service through a sales, service and spare parts centre.

She said that with the expected turnaround, the company would be launching the Chevrolet Captiva towards year's end.

“Apart from fuel economy, the Captiva is functional and stylish, its seven-seat capacity will allow us to play up against our competitors, which in Malaysia would be the Honda CRV, and the pricing range would be competitive against it,” she said.

Wisadkosin said besides the Captiva, three or four other models would be launched in the next six months in the compact-car range. “What we'll be offering will be something in the range of the Honda City or Toyota Vios,” she said.

General Motors Asia Pacific president Stephen K. Carlisle said although there had been setbacks for GM in Malaysia, the economic fundamentals were here.

“If you want to have a presence in South-East Asia, you have to be here. And while there is a unique set of difficulties operating here, we've reinforced some areas that we know are important,” he said.

Carlisle said the aim for the long term was to see sales of at least 5,500 units, which was the highest achieved in a year in a market where the non-national segment accounted for between 25% and 30% of total vehicle sales in the country.

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