Tue, 05 Sep 2000

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)