TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Premium car sales buck industry-wide slump
With overall car sales slumping as demand slows due to lower purchasing power, sales of BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars - the two biggest premium car manufacturers here - have defied the trend and even expect single-digit growth
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
W
ith overall car sales slumping as demand slows due to lower purchasing power, sales of BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars - the two biggest premium car manufacturers here - have defied the trend and even expect single-digit growth.
In the January-September period, total car sales plummeted 27 percent, but that was not the case for the two producers.
German luxury car manufacturer BMW sold 618 cars as of September, representing a 7.3 percent increase from a year earlier, said Ramesh Divyanathan, PT BMW Indonesia president director.
During the first nine months of the year, the company sold 37 units of its 7-series luxury sedan, which it claims is the market leader for premium limousines, with a price tag of more than Rp 2 billion (about US$218,000) - almost double from a year earlier.
"We are targeting to sell up to 50 7-series sedans by the end of 2009," Ramesh said.
He added BMW's positive performance in Indonesia was further evidence that the country's economy had managed to shield itself better than most other countries in the world in the light of the global economic turmoil.
"Most of our customers in Indonesia say they were not significantly affected by the crisis," Ramesh pointed out.
"In Europe and America, meanwhile, which rely mostly on the manufacturing sector, consumers were significantly shocked by the crisis."
BMW only managed to post positive growth in four countries worldwide: Indonesia, India, China and Brazil.
Elsewhere, though, sales of BMW cars declined over the first nine months of the year.
BMW spokeswoman Helena Abidin said the company was optimistic that 2009 sales of BMW cars in Indonesia would exceed last year's figure of 720 cars.
Meanwhile, BMW's biggest competitor in the domestic market, Mercedes-Benz, also posted positive growth in sales, although at a lower level than BMW's.
During the same period, 2,022 Mercedes cars were sold, representing 3 percent growth from the same period in 2008.
Mercedes-Benz, which claims to have a 69 percent market share in the premium car market, is targeting to sell a total of 2,600 units by the end of 2009.
Besides BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the premium car industry here includes Jaguar and Audi. (bbs)
