GM to export Chevrolet 'Zafira' from Thailand

Asian Economic News, Jan 24, 2000

BANGKOK, Jan. 21 Kyodo

General Motors Thailand Ltd. said Friday it will produce Chevrolet "Zafira" small vans in Thailand for export to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australasia by the end of this year.

"This is the first time in the history of the Thai automotive industry that Thai-produced passenger vehicles will be exported to Europe," William Botwick, president of GM's wholly owned subsidiary in Thailand, said at a press conference.

The GM Thailand Assembly Center, now in pilot production, will be the second GM factory outside Germany to produce the Zafira, which has sold more than 150,000 units since introduction in the European market last April.

Botwick said the company's assembly center in the Thai east-coast province Rayong is to start production of the seven-seater Zafira in May for total production of 7,000 to 8,000 vans by the end of this year.

"From May 2000, when the first production vehicles roll off our Rayong assembly plant, we will immediately start our first export shipments. By the end of 2000, we will have shipped about 85% of our first six months' production to countries around the world," he said.

Next year, the company plans to increase production to 40,000 units with a similar target of 85% for export, the remainder for domestic sales.

Botwick said markets in the Asia-Pacific and Europe would be the first to get the Thai-built Zafiras.

GM invested 650 million dollars to build a regional manufacturing facility in Rayong Province in late 1996.