Toyota sees continued success for Kijang vans
Toyota sees continued success for Kijang vans
JAKARTA (JP): Carmaker PT Toyota-Astra Motor said on Monday it
was upbeat its dependable family van marque Kijang, will maintain
dominance in the local market despite the influx of vans imported
in completely built-up (CBU).
Company general manager for marketing planning and customer
relations Joko Trisanyoto said the throng of CBU vans had not
caused a serious impact to Kijang sales although the company had
seen a slight decline in its market share recently.
"It's true that Kijang's market share has declined slightly by
1.7 percent after CBU vans made an entrance here. But, we haven't
seen any serious impact of it on our Kijang sales. Demand for
Kijang is still high; you should see our waiting lists," he said.
He said market opportunities for Kijang, which now controls 39
percent share of the local family van market, was better than the
CBU units due to the former's more competitive price and reliable
after sales services.
Joko said the company, which had sold 35,244 units of Kijang
during the January-July period, was not worried about the
expected continuous inflow of imported family vans like KIA's
Carnival, Mercedes-Benz's A140 and Hyundai's Atoz.
He said the entrance of CBU models had in fact helped
stimulate and expand the family van segment.
However, Joko said that in a bid to anticipate fiercer
competition from foreign-made family vans in the future and as
well as to fulfill customers demand, Toyota-Astra was planning to
import Toyota's CBU versions from Japan next year.
"Hopefully, we can start offering the CBU versions in the
first half of next year. We've received the green light from
Japan and we're now in the process of selecting the models," he
said
The company said the sport-utility vehicle types, namely the
Land Cruiser Prado and Toyota Estima were expected to have a
price tag of about Rp 500 million and Rp 400 million
respectively.
Toyota plans to introduce several CBU models such as the Land
Cruiser Prado, the multi purpose vehicle Previa and the sedan
Crown at the Gaikindo car week-long exposition starting
Wednesday, company general manager of sales Dradjat Prawira said
during the company's launching of new Kijang models.
The company launched on Monday four new Kijang models, viz,
the SGX, LGX manual, LGX automatic and Krista, all of which have
2,000cc engine capacity and use the electronic fuel injection
technology.
The four models come in five color options and are offered at
an off road price ranging from Rp 128 million (US$16,000) for the
SGX to Rp 141 million for Krista.
The company said it expected to sell about 5,000 units of the
new Kijang this year.
Toyota-Astra said it had revised its target sales for 2000
from 60,000 units to 90,000 units, of which Kijang versions alone
are expected to contribute about 70,000.
The company attributed its optimism partly to the higher
national car sales record this year, which is expected to reach
300,000 units compared to the initial prediction of 240,000
units.
The national car sales, comprising of sedans, vans and trucks,
totaled 164,645 units as of the end of August.
In the January-August period, Toyota-Astra's total sales
reached 52,400 units, including various sedan models of the
Corolla, Corona, Camry, Soluna and Crown marques, Kijang and Dyna
trucks marques and special purpose vehicles of the Land Cruiser
marque. (cst)