Chery’s B240 MPV has been relaunched in Malaysia as a locally assembled car and it is now called the Chery Eastar. The locally assembled Chery Eastar MPVs will roll out of Oriental Assembler Sdn Bhd’s plant in Johor, but a new CKD plant will be up and running in Pekan, Pahang by the end of 2009. The Pekan plant will include an investment of over RM50 million in equipment and will begin assembly of up to 100,000 Chery vehicles a year, including 10 models such as hybrids, SUVs, MPVs and executive cars.

According to Chery Alado Sdn Bhd’s chairman Tan Sri Cam Soh Thiam Hong, more details on the plant will be announced in the next two months together with its joint venture partners which may include a GLC. “Malaysia is the largest passenger car market in ASEAN and also the important link for Chery to other ASEAN countries’ market. We currently have 7 other overseas factories in countries like Russia, Iran, Egypt and Argentina and are planning to accelerate more overseas factories in the coming 2 years,” said Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co Ltd’s president Yin Tongyao.

Chery currently exports 120,000 vehicles yearly and plans to hit 400,000 vehicles by 2010. As it is, the Malaysian plant will export 30% of its Chery Eastar production to countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Australia. Local sales of the MPV is expected to be between 120 to 200 units monthly.
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