Bimantara delays launching new model until end of year

By John Aglionby

PT Citramobil Nusantara will delay launching the third Bimantara model until the end of this year in order to concentrate on setting up its new manufacturing plant.

Earlier this month, Citramobil's parent company, PT Bimantara Cakra Nusa, formed a joint venture with Hyundai of South Korea to build a US$400 million plant in Purwakarta, West Java.

Construction is to start this year and the first cars are scheduled to emerge in 1999.

Company president Jongkie Sugiarto said: "We want to ensure that everything is right with the new factory and that all the necessary links are in place. Once it is up and running we will then turn back to the new model."

In January, Citramobil said it would add a third model to its 1600cc Nenggala and 1500cc Cakra in the middle of this year.

Jongkie said this week the new launch date would probably be in December.

"I am 80 to 90 percent certain it will be at the end of the year," he said.

He refused to reveal whether it would be a commercial vehicle or a sedan.

"If I were to reveal that it would give our competitors an unfair advantage. We will announce details of what type of vehicle it will be two to three months before the launch, probably in October."

However, he said: "It is interesting to watch the rapid growth of the passenger car market. Sales of category one vehicles, such as Kijangs, are growing at 1.5 percent, while passenger car sales are growing at 35.6 percent a year."

This would indicate that the most likely third model would be a passenger car.

Passenger cars currently account for just over 11 percent of the 600,000 automotive sales in Indonesia.

Jongkie predicted that the figure would rise to 30 percent by 2000 and 50 percent by 2005.

Citramobil plans to involve as many local suppliers as possible in the construction of the new model.

"We are being encouraged by Hyundai to tap the local market," Jongkie said.

"Then we won't have to import so much from Korea, we will then pay less in import duties so we can reduce our prices. This means we should sell more cars so we will then order more engines from Hyundai."

Despite not receiving any benefits from the national car program, the Nenggala -- a rebadged Hyundai Elantra -- has a 20.79 percent local content and sells for Rp 56 million ($23,000) on the road.

The Cakra -- a Hyundai Accent -- with a local content of 20.64 percent, sells for Rp 42.5 million ($17,500).

Meanwhile, Jongkie confirmed that Ford was waiting until the national car issue had been resolved at the World Trade Organization before committing itself to forming a joint venture with Bimantara, the sole agent for Ford in Indonesia.

"We have been told that Ford thinks the risk is too high to increase its presence in Indonesia at the moment," he said.

"They would like to have a joint venture here and we invited them years ago but at the moment everything is just pending on the national car," he said.

This week, Ford's regional director of public affairs, Kenneth Brown, said in Singapore that the American automotive giant could not afford to ignore the Indonesian market but would wait for the situation to be slightly more favorable.