Honda Motor has launched production of the Mobilio small MPV at its newly built plant in Karawang, about 70km (40 miles) east of the Indonesian capital city Jakarta.
The new plant, managed by Honda’s local subsidiary Honda Prospect Motor (HPM), is the company’s second in the country. It cost IDR3.1bn (US$260m) to build and has the capacity to produce 120,000 vehicles per year – bringing the company’s overall annual vehicle capacity in the country to 200,000 units.
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Deliveries are expected to start on 25 January, just ahead of the Chinese New Year, and a full year sales target of 80,000 units has been set for the model.
The company said its 2014 brand sales target for Indonesia is 170,000 units, compared with an estimated 95,000 units in 2013. This would almost double the brand’s market share from around 7.7% last year to around 14%, if total market sales remains largely unchanged this year, as is widely predicted
Honda said the Mobilio, which was designed specifically for Indonesia, has a local content rate of 86% – much higher than any other Honda car sold here.
Honda’s existing plant has the capacity to produce 80,000 vehicles annually and assembles the Jazz, CR-V and Freed.
