TD Cars set to expand abroad

TD2000, the sporty retro roadster from TD Cars (M) Sdn Bhd is ready for its big break overseas after having moved commercial production from Australia to Malaysia three years ago. 

“We are at the end of the learning curve. The next step is expansion,” said TD managing director Edward Teo, the man behind the resurgence of TD2000. 

Edward Teo with a TD2000 car - Bernamapic

The plan is for TD2000 to achieve higher sales than the Morgan produced by the Morgan Motor Co, which also makes retro sports cars. Some 580 Morgans are sold each year worldwide. 

Morgan, established in 1909, is Britain's oldest sports car maker. “Morgan is our main competitor,” said Teo, adding that TD targeted to match or exceed Morgan's annual production within five years. 

The TD2000 has so far been exported to Australia, Brunei, India, Kuwait, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Britain. 

The car's design is based on the 1950s MG TD model. It is assembled by Automotive Conversion Engineering Sdn Bhd (ACE), which has built some 170 TD2000s to-date. 

Teo said TD was now setting its sights on the European market. 

Under European Union (EU) laws, up to 500 low volume cars like the TD2000 are permitted to be exported to each EU country every year. 

“Even if we achieve 5% of the targeted 500, it is already a big volume for us,” he said in a recent interview. 

Teo said TD would use Britain and Germany as platforms to enter EU. 

He said a group of British businessmen recently bought a TD2000 to gauge its potential in the British market before signing up as distributors. 

As for Germany, Teo said TD would send a new TD2000 for the second homologation test in a year's time after the two-seater failed the first test due to the absence of on-board diagnostics two system. 

“Toyota, our supplier of engine and transmission, is very supportive in providing a new engine and transmission for the second homologation test. 

“Once we get into Germany, I think the rest will fall into place,” said Teo. 

On other potential markets, he said buyers in Japan had bought 12 units and ordered another five. 

The company's distributor in Kuwait recently ordered seven units. Teo said the owner of Kuwait's TD2000 distributor, Saud Al-Kateefi, had already booked an exhibition space to showcase the car at the 7th Middle East International Motorshow in Dubai from Dec 11-15 alongside well-known marques like Maserati. 

Teo said if the Kuwaiti dealer managed to find export markets in neighbouring countries, TD might appoint him as dealer for the whole of West Asia. 

On the potentially big market in China, he said while there had been numerous enquiries (including setting up a production line in China), TD had not had any serious discussions. 

“We plan to do so next week. If we ever enter into a tie-up for the transfer of technology in China, production there would be meant only for China, Macau and Hong Kong,” he said. – Bernama