Foton News

And it is now confident of becoming a major global player. The Beijing-based manufacturer fired up in August 1996, building in the main trucks and buses. Today it is the country's top commercial vehicle brand, has sold more than five million vehicles and reportedly accounts for 50 per cent of Beijing city's income. Now Foton is moving to be "the leading brand in world auto market", making inroads into new markets and expanding its vehicle line-up from the current heavy and medium duty trucks, buses and vans down to a compact car by 2015. It wants to be a top ten, world class automotive concern by 2020. The master plan is 5+3+1, first expanding in developing areas such as Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. The next three target markets are North America, Europe and Japan. And the one is for the home country: "Foton will guarantee its leadership in the Chinese market by the deep plough of its Chinese market." In all this Australia could serve as a small, but important player. Here, as the Japanese realised decades back, is a test market for western customers and tastes. Medium-duty Foton trucks arrived here three years ago and, all going to plan, the first light commercial Fotons, the Tunland utes, will be here in May. Inside 12 months that range should include dual, single and extra cabs, diesel and petrol engines, two and four-wheel drives. A commuter/cargo van is on its way, as is an SUV wagon based on the Tunland. And by 2015 there should be a compact car from Foton. It is a confident company, one that already has a joint venture engine company with Cummins to produce 2.8 litre and 3.8 litre diesel engines for trucks, buses, vans, utes and SUVs. Last weekend it signed, after nine years of negotiations, a joint venture deal with Daimler - Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive. This alliance will focus on the medium and heavy duty truck market and is another milestone in Foton's drive toward becoming a major manufacturer.  The Tunland utes, and the Australian market, will help map out the road ahead.

...has secured the rights to distribute the Foton range of 4x2 and 4x4 utility vehicles with plans for a sales kick-off early 2012. Australian Design Rule compliance and testing is currently under way and is due to be finalised in the next two months. The Foton utes will be powered by a Cummins ISF 2.8 litre Euro 5 common rail turbo diesel or a Foton manufactured 2.4-litre petrol engine coupled to a Getrag five-speed manual or ZF six-speed automatic. The Foton ute has been designed and targeted for both North American and "Western" markets rather than for domestic Chinese sales and has been benchmarked against the best Japanese rival models. As well as Foton ute, WMC Group handles Higer buses and JAC trucks in Australia. Foton will be well specified and priced at a level that will be between 15 and 20 per cent less than comparable models from Japanese manufacturers. Australia has the third highest sales of utes in the world and Foton will be using it as a launch pad ahead of a planned move into North America and Europe over the next two years. Foton will build the ute in an entirely new state of the art green fields plant near Beijing and it will be the first vehicle to be manufactured in the factory. It is fitted with ABS+EBD along with dual front airbags. The latest Euro 5 spec ISF 2.8-litre common rail turbo diesel engine is the newest engine in the Cummins range and delivers up to 120kW of power and 380 Nm of torque soon after. The transmission features an electronic transfer case for selection of four wheel drive on the move, while it also boasts the latest design heavy duty Dana axles with limited slip differential. WMC is planning a range of six model variants in 4x4 dual cab diesel, a 4x2 dual cab diesel, and a 4x2 dual cab petrol as well as a 4x2 extra cab diesel and 4x2 single cab models with either diesel or petrol power. A strong dealer network has already being assembled to handle sales of the Foton ute range.