Honda enjoys sales boom in RI

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three top Japanese carmakers surpassed sales target in Indonesia last year with Honda recording the highest growth of 215 percent from 21,650 units in 2003 to 46,500 units.

Honda's total sales made up 9.6 percent of last year's total automotive market of 483,417 units. This year, the company has targeted to sell 53,000 units, or 10 percent of the total market of 530,000.

Earlier, the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) targeted car sales would reach 520,000 this year.

Honda's skyrocketing figure was due to the high demand of its compact car Jazz. The sales of Jazz, which was launched last March, reached 24,844, or 53 percent of Honda's total sales.

In the compact car segment, Jazz took 20 percent of the total market following leader Toyota Avanza with 36 percent.

"This figure has brought Honda to a historical high in Indonesia," PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM) sales and marketing general manager, Jonfis Fandy, told a media gathering on Thursday.

The new record has put Honda in fifth place overall of automakers in the country, in terms of volume, after Toyota, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Daihatsu.

Another contributor to Honda's success was its big sedan Accord, which sales reached 1,763 units or 29 percent of the total market segment, thus making it the leader followed by Toyota Camry.

The only slump of Honda's products was the CR-V, which sales dropped from 10,130 units in 2003 to 6,701 last year due to tighter competition.

"To boost the sales of CR-V, we plan to launch a new variant," Jonfis said.

HPM will produce the new CR-V that will carry a 2.4-liter engine to compete against Nissan X-Trail, which sales increased from 17 percent of the total market in 2003 to 27 percent last year.

"Reaching the 46,500 figure is also an achievement for us. Therefore, we will continue to offer our best products and improve our services," HPM president director Kenji Otaka said.

The company will still rely on Jazz to boost its sales this year and plan to issue the VTEC engine version for the compact car. HPM will also launch the New Odyssey Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV), which entered the local market through general importers, on Jan. 20.

Market leader PT Toyota Astra Motor also recorded sales had increased by 71 percent from 100,881 in 2003 to 141,944 last year.

The sales boost was dominated with Toyota's MPV products -- particularly the affordable Avanza, below Rp 100 million (US$10,775) and the much-awaited Kijang Innova. The MPV contributed 98,840 units to total sales. Last year, 65,140 MPVs were sold.

Meanwhile, Nissan recorded a nearly twofold increase in sales from 6,720 units in 2003 to 12,201 last year.

The raise surpassed its original sales target of 10,000 units.

PT Nissan Motor Distributor Indonesia (NMI) president director Toru Hasegawa said the jump was boosted by the sales of X-Trail and Terrano -- both Sports Utility Vehicles.

Hasegawa said Nissan was on the right track toward reaching its mid-term yearly sales target of 40,000 units in 2008. He based this on the fast growth sales of Nissan products over the last two years.

Top five automakers (in volume) in 2004:
1. Toyota 141,944 units
2. Mitsubishi 89,590
3. Suzuki 82,242
4. Daihatsu 47,623
5. Honda 46,500

Source: Gaikindo