Online Reporter
Mukudzei Chingwere recently in BULAWAYO
A TECHNICAL team from Willowvale Motor Industries is in India to evaluate buses manufactured to Zimbabwean specifications, a step aimed at paving the way for a new assembly agreement with global vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, The Sunday Mail has been informed.
This comes after Willowvale paid US$5 million in January for bus and truck assembly kits.
The kits will be assembled in Harare under the first phase of the agreement.
From then on, Ashok Leyland will start disbursing the kits to Willowvale Motor Industries on a pay-later facility as per market demand.
The deal, which gained traction during Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga’s working visit to India last year for the 20th India-Africa Business Conclave, has been in the works since 2021.
Modalities had already been agreed upon pending final signature.
Ashok Leyland executives have previously indicated that they have big investment plans for Zimbabwe.
Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe chief executive officer Mr Edward Tome confirmed the presence of their technical team in India.
“We sent a technical team to India to go and assess the sample buses and minibuses manufactured by Ashok Leyland of India. They were manufactured to our specifications to match the Zimbabwean terrain,” said Mr Tome, whose firm is the holding company that owns Willowvale Motor Industries.
“The current assessment is to now physically check that the buses and minibuses are to their specs.
“This is what the team is doing this whole week (last week); then next week (this week) we will get the assessment reports.”
He added that before full production of the kits begins, any adjustments that are needed will have to be made.
“If these samples are manufactured to our Zimbabwean specs, we expect these sample buses to be shipped immediately after they leave next week,” said Mr Tome.
A key element of the agreement is that 30 percent of the buses’ components will be manufactured locally.
If the buses are produced to standards aligned with Zimbabwean preferences, Ashok Leyland will ship the parts to Zimbabwe.
Mr Tome said once this process is completed, Willowvale will invite local manufacturers to assess which components they can produce to Ashok’s standards.
This will expand the range of parts made locally under the 30 percent target.
He said manufacturers across the sector, including those that produce seats, bus flooring, batteries and other components, will be called in for evaluations.
Where local suppliers meet Ashok’s standards, Willowvale will instruct them to supply specific parts while gradually phasing out imports of those components.
“We expect the buses to arrive here by June.
“ If our technical team is happy, then we will use those samples to do market sounding to show our clients that these will be the buses that will be available from October, November this year, right up to December,” added Mr Tome.
“When we finish manufacturing and once we are happy with that, we give Ashok the greenlight to start mass kits production. When these samples come through, we now start to localise manufacturing towards the 30 percent local component manufacturing.”
He said as they localise component manufacturing, they will, for example, advise Ashok not to supply items such as batteries, bars and seats, and tap into competent suppliers at home.
“We work together with Ashok because they want to approve local manufacturers; they have a brand to protect, and they wouldn’t want substandard products.”
