JAC set for Nigeria entry after road tests
After two and half years in the works by Elizade Autoland, the JAC range of cars and utility trucks of China extraction is set to fire on all cylinders in the Nigeria market with a formal launch of the vehicles into the local market. By entering the market, the new dealership is coming to market with a JAC model of vehicles that can compete favourably with established brands both in terns of pricing and value for money.
Only last weekend, some motoring journalists, including BusinessDay, embarked on a test drive of selected JAC J5 saloon cars shortly after a product presentation of the vehicles by Elizade Autoland team led by Olu Tikolo, marketing director of Elizade Nigeria Limited and Ademola Phillips Adewumi, head of sales of the dealership.
According to Olu Tikolo, Elizade Autoland has spent the last two and half years testing the JAC vehicles and trucks on Nigerian roads. We have perfected these ones now and they are very close to the same rating with the Japanese cars. We listened to the complaints and feedbacks from customers to work on the models.
He told the motoring journalists that Elizade Autoland have taken time and painstaking efforts working addressing the concerns brought forward by the fleet customers given the vehicles to test run.
Performance, three levels of test, gotten adequate response, and have taken all of the perceived misconceptions from customers to right some of the wrongs arising from the first batch imported into the country two and half years ago.
The road test involving two manual and one automatic transmission version of the saloon cars kicked off from the Elizade Autoland outlet along Bank Anthony Ikeja, Lagos. The day’s test-drive took media team through Maryland through Ikorodu road, and Eko Bridge to Marina terminating the first lap in front of Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS).
From the Tafawa Balewa Square, the drivers changed vehicles and commenced the second lap of the return journey that took them from there to 11.5 kilometer Third Mainland Bridge back to the Elizade Autoland dealership.
While the journey lasted, the road ‘mannerisms’ exhibited by both the manual and automatic transmission driven by our reporter showed an improvement in the performance of the vehicles and a somewhat radical departure from what is typically Chinese.
Recalled that the vehicles were earlier given to some partner companies for thorough and rigorous testing to ascertain their suitability for the Nigerian environment, there was an interactive session with members of the participating companies, which included blue-chip companies, SMEs, taxi/cab associations in Lagos.
The mission was for them to narrate their experience with the vehicles to ascertain their adaptability to the environment. The outcome from the test drive by the institutions which was compiled and passed on to the manufacturing company in China gave birth to the current of revamped JAC cars and trucks under the dealership.
Meanwhile, Elizade Autoland, a subsidiary of Elizade Nigeria Limited have signed a deal with JAC in China to ensure that spare parts are brought into the country for proper maintenance of the vehicles , said there will be a three- year manufacturer’s warranty or 100,000km (whichever comes first) for buyers of the vehicles, with local personnel already being trained for after-sales service of the vehicles.
MIKE OCHONMA