Micro Car News

Le Sabre · September 13, 2009

Looks like they are going to manufacture the Micro Privilege first model in india.

Any news on when the new Privilege will be out.

It will be good to see how the international market accepts this and any other new models from Micro.

Micro moves into manufacturing prime movers

In an economy the transport sector always plays a key role to keep the economy moving. Our objective is to shoulder this responsibility and be of use to provide most economical, modern and efficient solutions to meet the common mans requirement.

The commissioning of the new facility to manufacture Prime Movers (Container Carrier) for heavy long haulage with a carrying capacity of 80 tons, is to cater to the large haulage vehicle sector which will be developing as a result of liberation of the north and east, where large volumes of goods are required for transport, which otherwise was transported by sea. Road transport will be cheaper mode of transport. Manufacturing the same locally, will make available affordable new heavy vehicles which will be appropriate to our transport sector.

This production line is made available with the technical co-operation by International Tractors Ltd. a company of “Sonalika Group” of India branded as Sonalika marketed by Micro Agri, to meet the increased demand of agriculture tractors and implements due to the vast expansion of new land liberated after the war. Assembling tractors and implements in Sri Lanka will no doubt make available a quality product at a very reasonable price to the farmer.

Manufacturing vehicles in Sri Lanka will have many benefits to the national economy such as; saving of valuable foreign exchange costs on overheads, salaries, wages and profit that would be paid to overseas supplier, in the event these vehicles are imported in completely built form.

All vehicles assembled in Sri Lanka are with over 35% local value addition. This includes manufacturing components locally. This gives an opportunity to local manufacturers to supply OEM parts to vehicles manufactured in Sri Lanka, while an opportunity is made available to the youth to be a part of this opportunity which is limited to a privileged in the developed countries.

The first model of the Micro Privilege will be manufactured in India. This is the model that met all the criticism from all parties when introduced to the local market in the year 2003. The Indian partner has been quoted as saying it is proud to enter into a JV with such an innovative company as Micro Cars Ltd of Sri Lanka.

Since Micro Cars Ltd has proven its ability and developed a product for export market, the government should encourage such enterprises to enjoy duty free and vat free facilities for the trucks and prime movers made in Sri Lanka, so that the locally made such vehicles, will enjoy an advantage over the imported vehicles. In turn this will allow large locally made vehicles to be used at a very reasonable price. By doing so locally made vehicles will be tested in Sri Lanka and will be available for export to the region as the first Micro Privileged.