Kijang output hits 1 million mark

Kijang output hits 1 million mark

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMI) launched on
Wednesday its one-millionth Kijang van, making it the first four-
wheeled vehicle in the country to reach the one-million
production mark.

The Kijang has become the most popular van in the country
since it was first launched 1987, with users now ranging from the
rich to middle and lower income people.

First launched as a basic utility vehicle designed mostly to
carry goods, it is now a multipurpose vehicle used to carry goods
and people alike.

Now selling for between Rp 130 million (US$15,300) and Rp 150
million, the van controls 68 percent of the domestic market in
its class, according to TMMI.

In the first eight months of the year, Toyota produced 44,758
Kijangs and sold 43,758 of them on the domestic market. Sixty
percent of Kijang parts are produced locally.

Today, aside from being sold on the local market, Kijang vans
are exported to Brunei, the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea and
East Timor in completely built-up (CBU) form and to South Africa,
Malaysia and the Philippines and Taiwan in completely knocked
down (CKD) form.

In the first seven months of the year, the cumulative export
value reached $715 million.

President director of PT Toyota Astra Motor, Johny Darmawan,
said he was optimistic that the Kijang as well as other vehicles
made by Toyota would continue to attract local customers.

He said Toyota car sales were expected to reach 99,000 this
year or 29 percent of the national car sale target for the year.
The firm expects about 80 percent of the predicted 99,000 cars it
sells this year to be Kijangs.

In the past, Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan's largest
automaker, manufactured and sold its products on the local market
through Toyota Astra Motor. However, the firm recently split its
operation into two separate units: Toyota Astra Motor for
distribution and after sales service, and TMMI, with 4,378
employees, for production.