The Sasuka is known in China under the internal name of '009. It is a fully equipped high-end model with a 2,7-litre petrol engine that delivers 110 kW of power at 5200 r/min and 235 Nm of torque at 4000 r/min.
"Our three major objectives with the '009 program, starting with this model, are to provide innovation, passenger orientation and value," says John Jessup, BAW SA's head of Sales, Marketing and After-Sales.
Jessup stresses that these are not just fancy words. "For too long the needs of passengers, drivers and operators seem to have been ignored within the taxi market when compared with the general market. With BAW, this will not be the case. We intend giving superior value. For example, our vehicle will be priced 15% below that of our main competitor but with many features and service plans that they don't have, with a market value of an estimated R70,000 all included in the price," he reveals. Most of these unique items are a first in the taxi segment.
BAW will include in the recommended retail price of R275,990 a two-year/200,000 km service plan, which also covers maintenance of the entire braking system. Service intervals are every 10,000 km and will be undertaken via a one-hour express service concept. The warranty period is for two years or 100,000km.
"We will have 40-50 quality dealers in the country and adjoining territories. We are already close to achieving that number of appointments. Most of our dealers already own well-established franchised dealerships and dealer groups, some operating at the very top end of the market.
In the areas with a wider geographical spread, we will be testing the concept of mobile service units which will allow us to get to the operators," says Jessup.
"In addition to the vehicle itself (which includes features such as ABS brakes with EBD and retractable seat belts), we are determined to improve safety levels significantly via this regular professional maintenance," Jessup reveals.
"Poor maintenance is undoubtedly the single biggest potential factor in causing vehicle accidents, even if the vehicle is relatively new.
In terms of innovative features, we are offering a touch screen on the console which not only operates the CD/radio but also a DVD player, which plays movies via a fold-down TV screen mounted on the forward ceiling. The system will also be able to show live television once the local terrestrial stations are ready with digital transmissions. Furthermore, a GPS navigation system is built into the front console screen, in case difficult destinations need to be reached efficiently," says Jessup.
"Factory-fitted air-conditioning with units in both the front and forward ceiling area are standard as opposed to after-market fitment. The same applies to remote (keyless) central unlocking, integrated tracking hardware equipment and cellular telephone blue tooth for the driver. Additional standard features include alloy wheels, wider white-wall tyres, an additional 110 mm of space in the passenger seating area and 'high-back' two-tone UV-resistant PVC seating with an eight-degree rear tilt capability.
"One of the key success factors in this business is end-user financing," says Jessup, who has also revealed that BAW has come up with a number of very creative ways of reducing any risk to the banks. These include guaranteed buy-backs, "which we will refurbish in our factory and redistribute via our dealers. We have already secured end-user financing contracts at fair and reasonable interest rates with ABSA and WesBank," he says.
Needless to say, BAW has all the necessary SABS homologations in place. "We have furthermore joined up to become audited by ITAS, which will interrogate and rate our product and ourselves," he adds.
BAW has furthermore promised full parts back-up to operators: "For instance, we have a large parts warehouse at our Springs facility, which will hold parts to the value of R40 million. Daily deliveries are being made to our dealers. Parts pricing targets are very clear and will be well below competitor levels based on the Kinsey basket," says Jessup.
Given this aggressive value positioning, BAW is anticipating strong demand levels. "With the combination of such a good product and such competitive pricing, we are cautiously ambitious. We will monitor our demand levels very carefully and adjust our supply rates accordingly. But I will be very surprised if we do not start making meaningful inroads to the South African minibus taxi market fairly quickly," says Jessup.
The taxi is only the (albeit important) tip of the product iceberg for BAW. "As indicated at the time of our plant opening we are also looking to enter the light commercial vehicle (LCV), sports utility vehicle (SUV) and passenger markets progressively over the next 12 to 18 months," concludes Jessup.
