Preps to assemble Chinese light vehicles at advanced stage

expected to roll off the plant in January next year, a Quest Motors official said on Tuesday.
Quest Motors Corporation intends to assemble the Cherry QQ3 and Chery Tiggo at its Mutare plant starting in January 2012.
The company has spent $4 million on refurbishing the Mutare assembling plant.
The Chery QQ3, which costs $10 937 is a small and light car which weighs 880 kg and uses as little as 5, 2 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres, while the Chery Tiggo is a five-door crossover SUV available as a front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive with 1.6, 2.0 and 2.4 litre gasoline engines.
Quest Motors general manager Tarik Adam told NewZiana that the company would start producing the Chery Tiggo first.
“The project is in its final stages and we hope to have the first units off the line sometime early in the New Year,” he said.
“It is the Cherry Tiggo that we will be launching first and the QQ3 later in the year.”
Adam said some knock-down kits for the assembling process for the two vehicles would arrive soon.
“Some kits of the vehicles we intend to use in the assembling process are at the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border,” he said.
The local motoring industry is failing to boost output due to the increase of cheap imports which are trickling into the country.
About 250 grey imports pass through Beitbridge Border Post daily destined for the Zimbabwean market.
The introduction of the Cherry vehicles is set to alleviate the massive shortage of locally assembled cars as production at former sole motor producer Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries has failed to meet demand. – New Ziana.