Stallion Group Rolls out First Made-in-Nigeria Hyundai Vehicles

VENTURES AFRICA – Nigeria based multinational conglomerate, Stallion Group, on Sunday, announced the roll out of its Hyundai vehicles manufactured and assembled locally.

The company operates a multi-vehicle assembly plant in Nigeria. It had, in April, rolled out the first set of made-in-Nigeria Nissan automobiles and last month disclosed that it had begun the local production of Hyundai range of vehicles.

The local production of vehicles, obligated by Nigeria’s new Automotive Policy, is seen as a means to boost direct investment in the country and reduce cost of vehicles. Last month, indigenous vehicle producer – Innoson Motors said its locally manufactured cars were to be rolled out in the market soon.

CEO of Stallion Group, Sunil Vaswani said the investment in local manufacturing of vehicles would break the stranglehold of wholesale vehicle importers on Nigerians. His company said the Hyundai passenger cars would sell at very affordable prices, between N1.5 and N1.9 million ($9300 – $11,700), and all its vehicles certified to the world’s highest automotive operating standard – ISO/TS 16949. It gave the car brands being supplied to the market as Hyundai i10, Grand, Accent, Elantra and iX35, while in the truck and bus segments, the 10-tonne HD160, seven-tonne HD 120, five-tonne HD78 and three-tonne HD65 as well as 28+1-seater Hyundai County bus and 30-seater Stallion County bus.

To make locally produced cars even more affordable, Nigeria’s Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga disclosed at a media parley after meeting with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAMA) comprising 14 vehicle manufacturers, that there were ongoing discussions to make it possible for Nigerians to obtain loans at the rate of about 10 percent to enable them buy the vehicles, over a four-year term.

He explained that though Nigeria’s government was not providing the funds, it had worked with banks to reduce the interest rate, with the banks increasing buying into the initiative. “The pool of funds can be as big as (the banks) want it, based on commercial consideration,” he added.

Challenging auto manufacturers to “prioritise affordability”, Aganga disclosed that the said 14 vehicle assembly plant owners are involved in the new efforts, and would pay zero duty when importing Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts, while the first type of semi-CKD is to attract 5 per cent duty; and the second grade – 10 percent.