The Quang Nam-based car maker plans to provide 1,500 public, sleeper/seater buses – claiming a 95 per cent market share – to the market this year. — Photo baoquangnam

QUANG NAM (Biz Hub) — The Truong Hai Automobile Company (Thaco) plans to export locally manufactured vehicles to Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos as part of its strategy this year.

Director of Thaco's sales department Mai Phuoc Nghe told Biz Hub that buses, dump trucks and light trucks are major products for the new export markets.

"The sale of locally manufactured automobiles in the future is a possibility following a market survey over the past few years. We shipped the first batch of Mazda cars to Laos in 2013 to assess the market," Nghe said.

"We have set a target of selling several thousands of cars in new markets in an expansion plan for the 2015-18 period," he added.

He pointed out that the new market will boost the sales of bus models from 1,300 units in 2014 to 1,800 buses this year.

Thaco also launched its new CityBus models in Ha Noi and HCM City. They have between 40 and 60 seats and are equipped with Cumins and Weichai diesel engines and electronic fuel injection systems (common rail system), meeting the Euro 3 emission standards.

"They are our first Euro 3-standard and environment-friendly buses in Viet Nam, replacing the old polluting buses in the two largest cities," Nghe said.

Light-truck model Towner950A, with a Suzuki engine, is set to penetrate Myanmar and Cambodia, while dump truck eyes are planned for the Laos market.

Meanwhile, truck-trailer Thaco Auman FV375, a key product equipped with a 12-cylinder diesel engine and an electronic fuel injection system, will satisfy customers with its load capacity that's been increased by 20 per cent, and fuel consumption that's been reduced by eight per cent.

Thaco also offers a 100,000km guarantee for two years for Auman FV375, priced reasonably in the Vietnamese market as its localisation rate is 30 per cent.

The Quang Nam-based car maker plans to provide 1,500 public, sleeper/seater buses – claiming a 95 per cent market share – to the market this year.

Thaco has so far manufactured and distributed vehicles of three foreign brands of Kia of South Korea, Mazda of Japan and France's Peugeot.

Last year, the automobile company led vehicle sales in Viet Nam, with more than 42,000 cars sold in 2014, claiming 32 per cent of the market share of the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers' Association.

It currently manufactures and distributes models of the three above-mentioned foreign firms at the Truong Hai-Chu Lai Auto Complex in the central Quang Nam Province. — VNS