GURUN, July 26 — Naza Automotive Manufacturing Sdn Bhd (Naza) is optimistic of achieving its target of assembling 17,300 cars at its Gurun plant this year despite operating with 200 fewer workers than before.

Chief operations officer Roslan Abd Ghani said the existing 905 employees are able to maintain the cars’ quality, adding the company is reducing its assembly workforce in stages as a cost-cutting measure.

“Last year we assembled 17,172 units of Kia and Peugeot models, and this year we are just 300 units short of the target,” he told reporters after the company’s breaking of fast here yesterday.

Roslan said the Naza plant is audited every six months by Kia and Peugeot to ensure quality, with two senior engineers each from Peugeot and Citroen and one from Kia on hand to troubleshoot technical issues.

Naza will bring in the Citroen DS3 model before year-end to join the 1.6-litre DS4 and 2.0-litre DS5, he said, adding the Peugeot cars it assembles in Gurun are also marketed in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

The new Kia Sorento, priced at RM118,888 and RM99,888 for the 2.0-litre and 1.6-litre variants respectively, has received encouraging response, with 1,000 bookings since its launch on July 2, he said. — Bernama