On August 26th UD Trucks, part of the Volvo Group, launched Quester, a new heavy-duty truck range developed specifically for growth markets. Quester will address new market segments and marks a milestone for the Volvo Group in line with the Group’s truck strategy to increase sales by capturing profitable growth opportunities in fast growing markets across Asia Pacfic and other regions. Quester offers customers solutions tailored to their specific business needs and supports them in running profitable, growing businesses.
“UD Trucks, with a proud and long-standing tradition of developing high quality trucks for the Japanese market, has exported trucks to markets across Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle-East for many decades. However, we have never developed products for customers outside Japan. With Quester, we are entering a new era by introducing an all-new truck range, specifically designed for growth markets”, says Joachim Rosenberg, Executive Vice President, Group Trucks Sales & Marketing and JVs, APAC.
Quester will expand UD Trucks’ customer base and contribute to the Group Trucks’ strategy by improving competitiveness and capturing growth opportunities in evolving markets. As a heavy-duty truck range, Quester provides a platform for a wide range of applications including mining, construction, distribution and long-haul transportation.
Being an integral part of the Volvo Group, UD Trucks has developed Quester by leveraging the Volvo Group’s global engineering network in combination with its tradition of Japanese craftmanship. Combined with sourcing and manufacturing on the Asian mainland, UD Trucks will now be able to deliver a modern, affordable vehicle range with superior performance tailored to the cost-conscious growth markets of the world. To ensure best possible uptime, Quester is supported by an expanded and upgraded distribution network providing UD Genuine Service and UD Genuine Parts amongst others.
Quester’s most obvious advantages as opposed to its competitive set are the robustness and strength of the truck, its fuel efficiency and the breadth of the range. The variety of different configurations with easy body mounting will provide customers with tailored, purpose-built solutions for all types of applications. In addition, there are new and patented features that will contribute to the customer’s uptime and safety.
The production of Quester will start during the third quarter of 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. Besides serving the domestic Thai market, the plant in Thailand will also serve as an export hub for South East Asia and beyond. In the near future, the range will also be manufactured in China for the Chinese market and later on in India.
“Why do we call it Quester? Because this reflects our six year quest to deliver a range of trucks and services, designed with you, and for you in growth markets”, says Loic Mellinand, Senior Vice President of UD Global Brand. “With Quester we wanted to build a truck with the same mind-set and endurance as a long-distance runner – efficient, determined and tough.”