NEW SUV: The ultra luxury Micro Reton, sports utility vehicle manufactured in Sri Lanka has received several export orders.
Already they have received enquiries from Germany, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sudan.
Micro Car Company introduced its newest addition a few months ago and already 50 vehicles have been sold in Sri Lanka, Chairman Micro Car Company Dr. Lawrence Perera said.
They have tied up with Mercedes Benz and a leading Korean car company, Sanyong, to manufacture this vehicle in Sri Lanka.
The company is manufacturing two SUV type vehicles, which are priced from Rs. 7.5 million upwards.
“This price is almost 40 percent less of the price of an imported car and the Government has pledged that they would purchase more vehicles from the company thus saving foreign exchange,” he said.
They are hoping to increase production with the intention of re-exporting to Europe. The body of the vehicle, mirrors, seats, and rubber components including the tyres are fully manufactured in Sri Lanka. “We are in the process of acquiring technology to have more local components to this vehicle,” he said.
He said that one of his main priorities would be to do more local value additions to this vehicle in Sri Lanka. “Presently we have 36 percent value addition and we want to increase this to around 50 percent,” he said.
Perera said the first ever Sri Lankan manufactured car named “Micro”, was designed, developed and phototyped locally by Transmec Engineering (Pvt) Ltd., and was officially launched in 2002 May.
“Today we have 52 percent of local value addition,” he said. Only the four-stroke engine and gearbox are imported from Italy.
The project produces 600 cars monthly providing over 3,000 direct jobs and 8,000 indirect jobs by the company.
He thanked the Government for assisting them to iron out problems with regard to the duty that was imposed on the Micro car. “I had made several representations to successive governments and now the company has been granted a duty waiver,” he said.
“The Government wanted me to have at least 30 percent value addition for the car to grant me this concession,” Dr. Perera said.
In addition to the Micro car they have increased value addition in both their Micro Mini Van and Micro Trend which have over 36 percent value addition done in Sri Lanka.
“My ultimate aim is to produce a 100 percent locally manufactured car,” he said.
