Honda wants to increase its share of the mini-sedan market from 24% last year to 40% this year with the launch of the revised City, the head of PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM) has said.
“We’ve already sold this model in Thailand and it’s very successful. So, why can’t we do it here?” said Tomoki Uchida, speaking to reporters at the launch of the car in Jakarta.
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The City, first launched in Indonesia in 1996, competes with the Toyota Vios; cumulative sales in the last 16 years have been 59,000 units but Honda’s sales in Indonesia were down 35% last year to 45,000 units largely because of supply shortages caused by the floods in Thailand which hit its production facility in Ayutthaya.
“We lost our market share last year purely due to a shortage of supply. But whenever there’s supply, the market will rebound. With our new City, we are upbeat we can grab the market again,” said marketing director Jonfis Fandy.
HPM is a joint venture between Honda and Indonesia’s Prospect Motor. The company plans to build a new asembly plant in Karawang, West Java, with an anticipated investment of USD$334.8m to meet rising demand in the local and regional market.
The plant is expected to start operations the first quarter of 2014; it will triple the firm’s annual production capacity to 180,000 units per year and help it reach its sales target of 210,000 units by the end of 2015.
The plant will make new models including the Brio, which is currently made in Thailand.
