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wo new models of Volkswagen (VW) Group vehicles were launched in Indonesia on Tuesday with an eye toward doubling sales figures.

PT Grandauto Dinamika, the local importer of Bentley super-premium cars, introduced on Tuesday the second generation of Bentley Continental GT sports coupes.

Seperately, PT Garuda Mataram Motor (GMM), VW’s authorized local distributor, launched a facelift version of the Touran sports utility vehicle (SUV).

Darwin Maspolim, the chief operating officer of Grandauto, which also handles Jaguar, said the company had sold about 20 units of Continental GT’s first generation coupes since 2004 and aimed to sell about 40 units of the second generation version during its seven-year life cycle.

“I believe we can achieve sales of 40 units of the second generation as Indonesia is experiencing good economic growth,” he said at the launch ceremony.

“Earlier this year we launched our flagship car, the Bentley Mulsanne, showing the principal’s confidence for a bright future for Bentley in Indonesia.”

A fully-customized Continental GT coupe is priced at Rp 6.5 billion (US$760,233) on-the-road.

Darwin also said there were about 200 Bentley cars in Indonesia, ranging from vintage models to newer vehicles.

Separately, GMM set a sales target of 800 cars for 2011, a 128 percent increase from a target of 350 cars in 2010. GMM sales manager Jonas Chendana said on Tuesday that the company, a subsidiary of local
automotive giant PT Indomobil Sukses Internasional, had sold more than 300 cars in the first half of 2011.

“Some 80 percent of the sales in the first semester were VW Golf TSI [hatchbacks],” Jonas told reporters at a ceremony to launch the Touran.

He added that the Golf TSI was a major contributor to sales last year and was expected to be a major contributor to this year’s sales target.

GMM aims to sell about 40 units of the Touran, which is priced at Rp 390 million off-the-road.

On Tuesday GMM also opened an upgraded VW sales point in Kapuk, North Jakarta.

Jonas said the Kapuk branch had been upgraded from a sales point to full dealership offering sales, service and spare parts.

The company previously upgraded sales points in Bandung, West Java; Medan, North Sumatra; and Surabaya, East Java; into full dealerships, he said, and would upgrade its branches this year in Puri Indah, West Jakarta and Bumi Serpong Damai, Banten, later this year.

Currently GMM has 16 branches in Indonesia and aims to upgrade its other sales points into full dealerships. “Upgrading the branches costs about Rp 3 billion each,” Jonas said.

On the upcoming Indonesian International Motor Show (IIMS), which starts on Friday at the Jakarta International Expo Center in Kemayoran, Jonas said the show and the arrival of Ramadhan would lead to a surge in sales.

Meanwhile, Darwin said Bentley and Jaguar would not join the show as their sales were small and would instead focus on shopping malls. (mim)