On June 5, 2023, the offline ceremony of the 2,500th vehicle sold and the 1,000th mini truck locally assembled by FOTON in Argentina was held at the truck production plant in Tres de Febrero City, Buenos Aires Province. Liu Wei, Deputy Party Secretary of Beijing and the CCPIT BEIJING delegation were invited to attend. Diego Valenzuela, mayor of Tres de Febrero City, Buenos Aires Province, Jiang Zili, Deputy General Manager of BAIC Group, and the partner in charge of FOTON Argentine participated together.
Under the witness of all parties, the 2,500th vehicle sold and the 1,000th vehicle assembled by FOTON in Argentina, and the first mini-truck product that meets Argentina’s latest ESC mandatory regulations officially went offline. This marks the successful completion of the first phase goal of FOTON localization strategy in Argentina. From small-scale vehicle exports to Argentina in 2016 to large-scale local assembly production now, FOTON has joined forces with local partners in Argentina to promote investment cooperation in core industries with “technology + capital”, and has established local assembly, sales, service and other industrial closed-loop advantages. With the operation strategy of gradually replacing vehicle imports with localized production, it has seized market opportunities. As of now, FOTON’s truck brand has achieved a total sales of 2,500 vehicles, not only achieving win-win development for both parties, but also bringing vitality to Argentina’s automotive industry development.
To meet strong market demand, FOTON and its local partners also plan to expand production models from mini-trucks to medium-heavy trucks, light trucks and other full-line truck products. The products manufactured locally in Argentina will meet the requirements of FOTON’s global intelligent manufacturing system and technical quality control standards. The products are matched with FOTON Cummins, FOTON ZF and other leading power chains “SuperPowerTrain”, which can not only greatly solve the industry’s common pain points such as vehicle quality, safety, price, etc., but also have comfort and super high cost performance advantages. It can provide users with the most valuable commercial vehicle solutions. The second assembly plant will also start construction in the near future. The new plant covers an area of about 64,000 square meters. After completion, the production capacity will reach 5,000 units/year, creating more employment opportunities for the local area.
In recent years, BAIC has made great progress in various markets in South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and other regions. Mini-trucks, heavy duty trucks, electric buses and other market shares are in a leading position.
