Renault injects Kes58m into Thika truck plant

rench automaker Renault has availed €500,000 (about Sh58 million) to upgrade the Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers plant to facilitate local assembly of its K-Range heavy duty trucks.

Renault Africa, Latin America and Asia Vice President Cyril Barillée said the Thika-based factory will start assembling its 6 by 4 trucks this year as part of its partnership with auto dealer CMC Motors, which partly owns the factory.

The French firm targets assembly of 150 trucks for the local market by the end of 2022 as it seeks to increase Renault’s footprint in the East and southern Africa region.

“The money will be used to upgrade the factory to start production of the Renault 6 by 4 trucks. We expect to start assembling by mid-June,” Mr Barillée told the Business Daily yesterday.

The Renault-CMC partnership raises the competition bar in Kenya’s lucrative truck segment that is currently dominated by Isuzu East Africa, Simba Corp and DT Dobie.

The firm, which is owned by the Volvo Group, will also start assembling other models in coming years depending on the market’s response to the 6 by 4 trucks. The automaker anticipates that local appetite for the vehicles will be driven by end-to-end logistics for industries, retail and agricultural production.

Mr Barillée said that local assembly will also be extended to Kisumu and Nakuru in the next few years as they work to make Kenya its regional hub.

Growth in the construction, mining and trade industries has increased demand for heavy commercial vehicles, which are often purchased brand new from official dealerships unlike most passenger cars in Kenya.

Renault projects that at least 50 jobs will be created in the upgrade as sales people and technicians. However, the carmaker will bring in its own engineers from France to help build capacity of local staff.

The French firm signed an agreement last December with CMC Motors to use the dealer’s distribution network comprising eight branches across Kenya and a central warehouse in Nairobi.

Industry data by Kenya Motor Association shows that heavy duty trucks account for 37.6 percent of all new vehicle sales making them the largest single vehicle class.

Renault has four other hubs in Ghana, Morocco, Cameroon and Tunisia tasked with distributing its trucks and conducting after-sales services across the continent.

Source: Business Daily