Park Jin-hai primarily focuses on K-dramas, entertainment shows and actor interviews. Beyond that, she also pens articles covering the broader arts scene, with a particular emphasis on classical music, dance and various aspects of lifestyle. Since joining The Korea Times in 2013, she has made significant contributions in the realms of hallyu (Korean wave), industry news and international affairs.
Foreign carmakers expand presence in local commercial car market
By Park Jin-hai
Local and foreign carmakers are intensifying their competition to take a bigger bite out of the commercial vehicle market.
Foreign carmakers are introducing trucks and buses, aiming to take the lead in the lucrative commercial car market in line with the toughened Euro 6 environmental regulations that took effect last month.
Volvo Truck Korea will launch full Euro-6 engine lineups ― including its flagship FH, FM and FMX models ― in March. They debuted in Europe last year.
Since it started accepting preorders in late January, it has received more than 320 orders in less than 20 days. Considering the Swedish carmaker’s last year sales figure of 1,600 vehicles, the initial response from customers is said to be “explosive.”
“For the new fleet with upgraded engines and features, we have limited the price hike to about 3 percent, while our rivals are expected to raise prices around 10 percent,” a Volvo Truck Korea official said.
Daimler Truck Korea will also launch new truck lineups with Euro 6 engines on Thursday.
Those cars are all new models of all sizes that include big trucks like the Actros and the Arocs, the mid-sized truck Atego and luxury van Sprinter.
“It is the first time that we launched the fully changed model since we entered Korea 10 years ago,” a company official said.
Chinese carmakers are not being left out of the competition. Shanghai-based Sunlong Bus sold more than 400 25-seater Duego buses in Korea last year, which were mainly used as tourist buses around Jeju and metropolitan areas. It will launch a new model in April.
It will target an increase of its sales to more than 1,000 buses this year.
Among Korean firms, Hyundai decided to launch a 15-seater minibus tentatively named the H350 in June, whose size is somewhere between a 12-seat minivan and a 25-seat bus.
In the face of heated competition in the segment, the company recently pledged to invest 2 trillion won in its Jeonju plant by 2020 to increase commercial vehicle production capacity from 65,000 to 100,000 a year.