UD Trucks and Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd (TCIE) had scored another key milestone together when they recently rolled out the first-ever locally-assembled or complete knocked-down (CKD) medium-duty UD Croner truck from Segambut-based Tan Chong Motor Assemblies Sdn Bhd (TCMA).

This achievement made Malaysia the first market in the world to assemble the CKD Croner and rolling it out successfully for UD Trucks.

It follows two years after the successful rollout of the first locally-assembled heavy-duty UD Quester truck in 2016.

As such, this is also the first UD Croner truck that is locally assembled for UD Trucks in Asia Pacific outside of Japan with a private distributor partner.

The rollout of UD Croner from local assembly comes less than a year after the medium-duty truck was launched and unveiled in Malaysia in August 2017.

An internal event officiating the factory line-off of the first unit was held recently with participation from management teams and senior staffs of UD Trucks, TCIE and TCMA.

“UD Croner is a versatile, reliable, safe and fuel-efficient medium-duty truck range that is developed with the Asian customers in mind.

“It is a truck range designed to deliver extra productivity and superior uptime as it combined the best of three worlds, which are UD Trucks’ Japanese heritage and craftsmanship, Volvo Group’s proven technologies and TCIE’s local resourcing, expertise and market reach,” said hub Malaysia UD Trucks managing director, Filip Van den Heede.

He added, their goal is to build the truck that our customers need for today and the future, and in doing so, they have taken numerous feedback from them in order to help them stay ahead of the competition.

“In Malaysia, cost efficiency and quality trucks are key factors to our customers and that is why, we are certain that with the availability of the locally-assembled UD Croner now, our customers will continue to enjoy all the strong features of the truck at a competitive price.

“In addition, they will also continue to receive thorough aftermarket service from our long-standing partner, TCIE,” said Van den Heede.

TCIE executive director, Tan Keng Meng said : “Our capability in producing complete knocked-down UD Croner trucks from our factory has further cemented Tan Chong Group’s competency in offering full range of services for the truck industry, with assembling being a highly key and strategic expertise, ever since we successfully lined-off the heavy-duty UD Quester in 2016.

“UD Trucks and Tan Chong Group have had a solid and highly successful 40-year partnership together, where we have worked and cooperated closely to introduce new products and services that deliver smart logistics to our customers in Malaysia.

“Our locally-assembled UD Croner trucks will not only continue to represent the hallmarks of what UD Trucks stands for, but it will also give operators all that is needed to work efficiently and effectively at an affordable price range.”

Tan explained this is very important especially in a competitive market like Malaysia and this is what we want to aim for our customers, as their satisfaction and trust in us remain our top priorities,” said Tan.

For this CKD Croner, TCIE will be rolling out 150 units this year comprising manual and auto transmission options for two models, namely Croner PKE and Croner LKE.

He added, the setting up of the assembly line with the investment of over RM1.5 million to produce locally-assembled heavy-duty UD Quester trucks two years ago was a strategic step on Tan Chong Group’s part to meet local market needs.

It will also support the growth of Malaysia as an important complete knocked-down automotive market in the region.

Also, a part of the company’s direction to increase its competitive edge as an automotive player and as such, a further investment of RM4.5 million was recently made to expand the production capacity of TCMA to include CKD Croner, where part of the investment is used for expansion of assembly facilities including body and paint.

UD Trucks, on the other hand, contributed to enhancing the capabilities of local engineers by sharing technology know-how and hands-on approach in training, to enable efficient management of the expanded facility and to ensure a smooth roll-out of the locally-assembled UD Croner.

“TCMA, with its complete knocked-down (CKD) operation fulfilling UD Trucks’ standards of quality and operational excellence, has played an important role and been for years a key part of our brand’s success in Malaysia.

“We believe with the dedication and support of TCIE and TCMA in upholding the quality of UD Trucks, and we will be able to continue producing more trucks that will deliver ultimate dependability to our Malaysian customers,” shared Tomoharu Takigawa, quality manager of UD Trucks KD.

TCIE has an extensive network of 43 services centers and dealerships nationwide and any purchase of UD trucks will be supported by UD Extra Mile Support services which include UD Genuine Service and Parts, UD Driver Training, UD Telematics and UD Trust Service Agreements for customers.

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