Tan Chong Motor of Malaysia is to assemble cars for Mitsubishi, according to Malaysia media reports.
The termination of the deal between Mitsubishi Motors and Proton has proven to be a reason for celebration for Tan Chong Motor (TCM), reported The Star Online.
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The agreement was signed between TCM’s 70%-owned unit Tan Chong Motor Assemblies and Mitsubishi’s 52%-owned unit Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM) in April.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research analyst Daniel Wong revealed the agreement in a report and stated “We believe that the contract is relatively small at the moment and may involve only passenger cars, an annual volume of 4,000 to 5,000 units (complementing Thailand’s global manufacturing hub for pick-up trucks).”
MMM vice president Hoffen Teh confirmed the news and said that both the firms were very close to reaching the consent of the contractual agreement’s details. Teh said, “the startup in production would not be so soon, and we will announce the details in due time.”
The agreement termination was a result of Proton’s change of ownership to DRB-Hicom, which took a decision to name Honda Motor as its foreign strategic partner.
The firms signed the agreement in December 2008 to develop a new vehicle for Proton. The product collaboration would see Proton source a vehicle from Japan to replace the Waja. As per the agreement, Mitsubishi would take the Persona and Proton’s multi-purpose vehicle to be Mitsubishi-marketed cars in select markets.
