Foton’s 2.8L Cummins Turbo Diesel Mid Size Truck to launch in January next year
Foton unveiled their new huffing heavy pick up truck late yesterday ahead of its initial production and sales launch in January next year, journalists were able to get a taste of what the big truck might look like. Foton, as part of BAIC Group, are being pushed to ‘leave the country’ and develop export markets in overseas lands, one stumbling block so far is that most overseas markets want mid size trucks rather than the mini compact trucks that are used in China. Now Foton has stepped up to the plate with the new Tunland.
The Tunland measures in at 5130×1800×1810mm (LxWxH) and carries Cummin’s light weight 2.8L turbo diesel engine that produces a miniscule 130bhp but an impressive 360Nm of torque, the Tunland (which sounds rather similar to Tundra) will be at the forefront of Foton’s overseas expansion plans and will ultimately see sales in Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. Initial production is limited to just 5,000 units and pricing is currently unknown, but we could see it coming in at sub 150,000rmb.
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Side view looks good – nice roomy extended cab, pretty slick. Problem with interior is the plasti-wood paneling and the flat-topped gear shift, although I guess since most of the domestics driving this will have the box cut it suits their style
I doubt this will see many sales in China, its the export market they are chasing. Too many restrictions on pick up trucks in China for personal users right now!
I won’t lie, it looks really good. The truck comes with a small diesel engine and if it does well in the Euro NCAP test I think they may have a winner in Europe.
Do truck owners really care about NCAP scores?
Great Wall have a similar mid size truck coming out soon as well, although it will carry their own engine rather than anything from Cummins.
Well, truck owners do care. Remember how poorly the Jiangling Landwind did in Europe? I think the ace up Foton’s sleeve is the Cummins. Cummins is a well known company with an excellent reputation.
The Landwind was an SUV that would have been more targeted towards a mixture of biz and regular consumers. I dont think too many Euro’s buy a truck with home use in mind, its mostly farmers, builders and laborers that snap them up. Although I do think a good test crash score is highly important if it is to be sold in the EU regions.
In developed markets they care about automatic.
So far nobody seems to be able to make this happen on a pick up amongst Chinese automakers even though this would be key to breaking more strongly into ASEAN markets, New Zealand and Australia (and the rest of the world).
This pickup will sell pretty well in ASEAN,Latin American and African countries.I hope they’ll do a SUV version based on this pickup!