Foton ute delayed

Foton Automotive Australia has delayed the launch of its Tunland ute range until October this year as it continues to refine the product for Australian conditions.

The Tunland was set to go on sale here as early as May but FAA chief Daniel Phelan told motoring.com.au the Chinese brand was still fine-tuning the all-new one-tonne pick-up for the Australian market.

“You only get to launch a new product once and we want to make sure it’s 100-per cent right,” he said.

Two final production versions of the Chinese-made Tunland arrived in Brisbane this week and will set out on an exhaustive drive program within Queensland to test their suitability to local conditions. These vehicles are considerably different to the pre-production vehicles Australian media drove in Beijing earlier this year.

“We’ve spent a lot of time getting the vehicles ready,” said Mr Phelan. “We’ve been working with Cummins to reprogram the ECU to deliver improved low-end power and remove any turbo lag.”

The Tunland is powered by a 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine produced in Beijing by diesel engine specialist Cummins in conjunction with Foton. The Cummins factory is a brand new facility adjacent to the Foton plant that uses state-of-the-art production technology sourced from Cummins’s US and UK operations.

There have also been cosmetic changes to the Tunland body, as well as improvements to its paintwork to protect it against corrosion in the harsh Australian climate. FAA says it is hoping to infiltrate the lucrative mining segment in the company’s home state of Queensland, where corrosion resistance is of utmost importance.

Mining giant BHP Billiton recently announced it will only purchase vehicles with a maximum five-star safety rating, while the Australian government also requires all new light commercial vehicles purchased for the commonwealth vehicle fleet from July 2012 to have a minimum of a four-star safety rating.

Motoring.com.au understands both new safety requirements have forced Foton to also improve the Tunland’s safety.

Pre-production Tunland models seen in February did not feature electronic stability control or side curtain airbags, both of which are a pre-requisite for achieving a five-star rating, and neither safety technologies were expected to be fitted to the first Australian vehicles.

Mr Phelan said at the time that FAA had wanted stability control from the start, but it wouldn’t be available in time for the first vehicles. It appears that the delay in the Tunland’s local launch may now allow the fitment of the active safety aid.

Mr Phelan declined to predict an ANCAP safety rating for the Tunland, but said FAA is aiming for a five-star result for its inaugural ute. He has been in meetings with the BHP-Mitsubishi joint-venture BMA, which has mines in Queensland and is eager to see the Tunland score the top five-star rating.

The Volkswagen Amarok, Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 have all achieved five-star ANCAP ratings and the recently launched Holden Colorado was awarded the same maximum crash safety rating this week. Isuzu’s new D-Max ute is similar to the Colorado but has two more airbags so is expected to also achieve five ANCAP stars.

Australia’s ute market leader and stalwart LCV of the mining industry, Toyota’s HiLux, does not currently come with stability control or a five-star safety rating across the range, but Toyota has said the model will be upgraded with the features needed to obtain that rating in 2013.

Mr Phelan, who is a director of FAA and in charge of vehicle compliance, said the Tunland has passed all the tests required for Australian Design Rule compliance and after the local testing of the two latest vehicles he will travel to China for a month to finalise local specifications.

The first shipment of 100 Cummins diesel-powered double-cab Tunlands is due to arrive here in September for an October launch to dealers and the public.

Single-cab and extra-cab variants are expected here in 2013, as is a four-cylinder petrol engine option, and there are also plans for an SUV wagon derivative based on the Tunland ute platform – in a similar arrangement to Holden’s upcoming Colorado 7.

Foton, which also plans to eventually introduce new van and compact car models Down Under, will initially have around 15 dealers on the east coast of Australia, but plans to ramp up its retail network to include more than 50 outlets once the Tunland is established here.

Tunland pricing won’t be confirmed until closer to the new launch date, but is expected to start at around $28,000, increasing to around $40,000 for a Luxury-spec 4x4 double-cab.

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