Ateco Australia has taken over distribution of Chinese light commercial vehicle brand LDV in Australia, with a re-launch locked in for October ahead of a range and dealer network expansion.
Daniel Cotterill revealed to GoAuto the takeover news earlier this week and added that it will not be taking any of the stock from WMC and will start afresh with new product – including an automatic transmission and entry-level pricing below $30,000 drive-away – in mid-October.
Today, Cotterill confirmed with AutoTalk that Ateco is in talks with all of the LDV dealerships In Australia to get them on board, but they won’t stop there. The plan is to double that number of dealership networks by the end of 2014.
“I would expect that Ateco will make some permanent arrangements with the current stock of LDV dealers across Australia, but also we are out actively recruiting dealers in time for the October re-launch,” Cotterill told AutoTalk.
Cotterill says there has been a holdover from the previous importer of 18 dealers.
“Our main concern now is to support existing owners in terms of warranty and servicing. In the meantime, whilst we establish our own product line-up, and have the new vehicles built and brought into the country, we are moving as quickly as we can to establish a broader distribution network.”
“When the re-launch goes ahead we expect to have the majority of the current 18 dealers, we want to re-launch with about 30 in October and hopefully expand that to 40 dealers by the end of the year.”
There was no confirmation at this point on how the new arrangements might affect Ateco’s New Zealand distributor, however, Cotterill believes that New Zealand will remain largely unaffected by the new arrangements.
I can confirm that Ateco does not handle LDV in New Zealand so I cannot comment on what may or may not happen with dealers or model line-ups there,” says Cotterill.
“We will be establishing a national dealer network in Australia so that will mean LDV dealers will be appointed in SA and the ACT.
”When the brand re-launches, Ateco will kick-off with a near-identical line-up for the V80, which includes short-wheelbase (SWB) low-roof, long-wheelbase (LWB) mid-roof and LWB high-roof body styles. Pricing under WMC started at $32,990 plus on-road costs for the SWB and topped out at $39,990 for the LWB high-roof,” he says.
While the V80 was previously only available with a five-speed manual gearbox, Ateco will introduce a new six-speed automatic transmission option.
While the LDV range will consist of the V80 initially, Cotterill confirmed that more LCVs were on the way under the LDV banner, including a smaller commercial van known as the G10, a people-mover version of the G10, a pair of buses and a still-secret one-tonne utility. Last year, 15,552 2.5-3.5-tonne vans were sold in Australia, with a further 3069 sub-2.5-tonne vans and about 5600 larger commercial vans.
As LDV does not report its sales with the FCAI, it is unclear how many V80s were sold in the 18 months since the brand launched in Australia, but Cotterill says Ateco is confident that the fledgling Chinese brand can make in-roads in the commercial van segment and is predicting that it will take sales from established brands early on.
“We have looked at it overall and as far as our analysts have seen it, the van segment represents 21,000 units a year,” he told GoAuto.
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