Hope rises for cheaper brand new cars

An designation that the incipient auto policy of the Federal Government will lead to a drastic reduction in the prices of conveyances has emerged with Hyundai Motors Nigeria Limited rolling out the first set of low-cost locally assembled conveyances.

The Stallion Group, the parent company of Hyundai Motors Nigeria, has directed the immediate sale of its locally assembled 1.1-litre engine Hyundai i10 car at N1.5m, and the 1.2-litre engine Hyundai Grand at N1.9m.

The Hyundai i10, under the old regime of importation, was being sold at N1.9m. The Grand is an incipient conveyance, but most conveyances in its segment are going for between N2.2m and N2.7m.

The drop in prices of locally assembled conveyances is, however, contrary to the initial fear that the incipient auto policy will lead to a sharp elevate in the cost of imported incipient and used conveyances.

Many car dealers had projected about 60 per cent increase in the prices of such conveyances following the exordium of the incipient auto policy in September last year.

As part of the incipient policy aimed at inspiriting local manufacturing of conveyances, the import obligation on incipient and used cars was incremented from 22 per cent to 70 per cent; while a zero per cent obligation was placed on imported Completely Knocked Down (conveyances).

Apart from the two Hyundai models, the Stallion Group gave other conveyances locally engendered as the Elantra and iX35 sport utility conveyance.

In the truck and bus categories are 10-tonne HD160; seven-tonne HD120; five-tonne HD78, three-tonne HD65, 28+1-seater Hyundai County and 30-seater Stallion County.

Although no prices were promulgated for the conveyances, the Chairman of the Stallion Group, Mr. Sunil Vaswani, verbally expressed in a verbalization on Sunday that the incipient conveyances “will be affordably priced,” in order to give Nigerians a break from the stranglehold of wholesale conveyance importers.

He integrated that the Hyundai conveyances were being assembled at its plant in Lagos.

The Group Managing Director, Sale, Marketing and Dealer Development, Hyundai Motors Nigeria, Mr. Parvir Singh, described the accomplishment as a milestone in the history of the country’s evolving automotive industry.

This is coming scarcely three months after the auto group, owners of a multivehicle plant, had rolled out its made-in-Nigeria Nissan Patrol and presented the conveyance to President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

The Director-General, National Automotive Council, Mr. Aminu Jalal, had told our correspondent that no fewer than 12 auto firms would commence to assemble conveyances in the country by the cessation of the year.

He additionally declared that the conveyances being assembled would be affordable, integrating that they could be as low as N1.5m.

According to him, by the time the several auto assembly plants roll out their products, the stiff competition that will follow will lead to reduction in prices compared to what is currently being experienced in the telecoms sector.

Another Korean automaker, Kia, has verbally expressed it will to roll out its first set of conveyances from its Nigerian plant in September this year.

The automaker’s Africa and Middle East Manager, Mr. Homer Kim, verbalized this in Lagos recently while inaugurating a Kia ultramodern showroom.

The Kia Motor Corporation had in February this year signed an accedence with Dana Motors Limited, its representative in Nigeria, to undertake a long-term investment in assets development, including the provision of technical knowhow and establishing a machinery for the local plant.

Kim verbally expressed the plant would immediately commence to assemble cull Kia models such as Rio, Cerato and Optima, which are in the A, B and C segments, and commence full-scale engenderment of the entire Kia range next year.

Recently, Pan Nigeria revived its moribund assembly plant in the country with the inauguration of Peugeot 301 engenderment line in its Kaduna factory.

The Managing Director, Pan Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Boyi, verbally expressed the incipient plant had been “fitted to handle multiple Original Equipment Manufacturer brand assembly, (and) when operational, we will require supplemental 250 workers at the SKD level, and over 1,000 workers when we migrate to the CKD.”