PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM), a joint venture between Japan'€™s third-largest automaker, Honda Motor Co., and Indonesia'€™s Prospect Motor, launched on Wednesday a second factory in Karawang, West Java, to meet the growing demand from Indonesian customers.

'€œFor Honda, Indonesia is one of its biggest growing markets. Last year, Indonesia was top among ASEAN countries,'€ Honda Motor Co. president Takanobu Ito said in his opening remarks at Wednesday'€™s inauguration ceremony.

The new plant was part of the firm'€™s efforts to achieve its sales target of 300,000 cars in 2016, and to produce high quality products for the Indonesian market, he said. HPM president director Tomoki Uchida said the new plant, which occupies 145,760 square meters of land, would boost the company'€™s annual production capacity from 80,000 to 200,000 cars.

'€œIt will also be the first plant in the world to produce our latest product, the Honda Mobilio,'€ he said, adding that the Mobilio was the first Honda vehicle in the low multi-purpose vehicle (LMPV) segment in the country.

The factory began producing a limited number of Mobilio in December last year, launching mass production as of Wednesday, said HPM'€™s marketing and after-sales service director, Jonfis Fandy.

'€œThe factory will initially produce 80,000 Mobilio cars this year,'€ he said, adding that other new models would also be produced at the new plant, which has a total production capacity of 120,000 cars per year. The company aims to invest up to Rp 3.1 trillion (US$256 million)

Jonfis said his company aimed to sell 80,000 Mobilio cars this year, or 47 percent of the company'€™s total sales target of 170,000.

'€œWe are optimistic we can achieve the target because the LMPV market is very promising. It accounted for 40 percent of the national auto market last year,'€ he said, adding that the firm had received orders for 8,500 Mobilios so far.

Last year, when sales across almost all car segments dropped due to the rise in interest rates and the weakening of the rupiah, the LMPV and low-cost green car (LCGC) segments were the only two that grew.

Jonfis estimated that, last year, the LMPV and LCGC segments grew by around 70 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

'€œThe Mobilio, with a 1,500 cc engine, offers a lot of features that other similar vehicles do not,'€ he said, adding that the car cost between Rp 159 million and Rp 198 million.

According to HPM data, the company sold 91,493 cars last year, a 32 percent increase from its total sales the previous year.

'€œWe hold 7.5 percent from the total 1.2 million vehicles sold last year, and we aim to make it double digits this year,'€ Jonfis said.

He said that to achieve the target, HPM would launch several new models this year, including a new Honda Jazz, which would also be assembled at the new plant.

'€œWe will also increase the number of our dealers, from the current 92 to 127 by the end of this year,'€ he said.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat said on Wednesday that the government would remain committed to maintaining the positive investment climate in the country, as it would provide more job opportunities.

He said that Honda'€™s new plant would provide 3,900 new jobs on the assembly line, 12,900 among suppliers and 6,200 among dealers. (koi)

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