Indonesia replaced Thailand as ASEAN’s biggest automotive market in 2011. With more than 890,410 cars sold last year, the region handily beat the former number one, Thailand, and its 800,300 units sold.
Followers of world events would know that Indonesia was given a handicap of sorts in the form of the Thai floods, which greatly hampered production and sales in Thailand. Despite this, many analysts expected Indonesia to come out on top even if there were no floods.
“Even without the effects of the floods in Thailand, Indonesia`s car sales are still high. The sales are already higher than Thailand`s in July last year,” says Jongkie D Sugiarto, First Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Motor Vehicles Industry (Gaikindo).
Vivek Vaidya, Vice President of Automotive Practice at the research company Frost & Sullivan Asia Pasifik, agrees with Jongkie and adds that the increase in Indonesian sales was mainly because of the popularity of MPVs like the Avanza, Xenia, Innova, Livina and APV, in addition to city cars like the Jazz, Yaris, and Fiesta.
Going forward, we can expect Indonesia to increase its lead over Thailand, maintaining its newly won status as Southeast Asia’s largest automotive market.
Reference: antaranews
