Daihatsu Indonesia expanding production, outlets

Japanese carmaker Daihatsu has plans of expansion in Indonesia, including increasing production capacity and developing more outlets across the country, an executive has said.

"We plan to increase our production capacity from the current 114,000 units per year to 150,000 units next year," Johannes Loman, president director of PT. Daihatsu Sales Operation, was quoted Monday by The Jakarta Post newspaper as saying.

"We'll also further expand and strengthen our distribution network and improve after-sales services by raising the number of outlets across the country."

Daihatsu will continue to target the compact car market, cars with an engine capacity of below 1500 CC and a selling price of 150 million rupiah (16,483 U.S. dollars).

"Daihatsu's decision to make Indonesia its production base outside Japan will result in more affordable and more competitive Daihatsu cars," he said.

"We see very good prospects for Daihatsu next year. Compact cars such as Xenia and Taruna are becoming more and more popular in the Indonesian market. That's why we're sure that more and more Indonesians will buy our cars in the future."

Daihatsu last year managed to get an overall market share of about 10 percent and targets to increase to at least 10.5 percent this year.

With the average sales of 2,700 units per month, Xenia sells the most and has about 5,000 people on the waiting list, he said.

Source: Xinhua