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wo German premium-car producers launched their newest models at the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) on Thursday to tap into growing demand among the country'€™s wealthy consumers for exclusive cars.

Luxury car maker Audi launched its new Q7 and TT series while its rival Mercedes Benz also rolled out the new generation B Class and new GLC class series at the 10-day auto expo, which will end on Sunday.

Audi Indonesia'€™s product trainer Krisna Aditya Aristian said the new Audi TT came with a price tag of
Rp 1.43 billion (US$102,145) on the road while the new Q7 was priced at Rp 1.995 billion. Both models had made their Southeast Asia debut that day, he added.

'€œWhat makes it awesome is that the two series made their first appearances in Southeast Asia in Indonesia,'€ Krisna told reporters in a press briefing on Thursday. He added that Audi had chosen Indonesia for its Southeast Asian launch because of the country'€™s rising purchases of luxury goods, such as premium cars. '€œWe have conducted research on that. We, for example, have observed that once a new [luxury product is launched, its sales are high,'€ he added.

Krisna said Audi aimed to sell 40 premium cars this year, up from 30 cars last year despite the expected drop in overall car sales in the country during the year. Audi hopes sales will further increase to 70 cars next year.

He said the sales of premium cars in the country were relatively unaffected by the country'€™s economic slowdown. '€œWe see a market anomaly [for premium cars],'€ he said.

Total car sales plunged by 16.6 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year amid the economic slowdown.

Indonesia'€™s economic growth in the second quarter of this year dropped to 4.67 percent, its slowest since 2009, amid weak commodity prices and energy exports, and officials say the 5-5.2 percent full-year target may be hard to reach.

Herry Noverino, Audi Indonesia'€™s assistant manager, said that Audi expected GIIAS to contribute 60 percent of the company'€™s sales this year. He said the company had received some orders during the show but declined to reveal how many.

Audi currently has factories in India and China but production in these two regions only supplies their respective domestic demand, according to Krisna.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Benz also rolled out its new generation B Class and the new GLC Class series during the expo, held in BSD City, Tangerang, Banten,

following the launch of the Mercedes-GTS and Mercedes-Maybach S-Class earlier this month.

The B Class prices range from Rp 499 million to Rp 565 million depending on the type. The GTS is priced at Rp 999 million.

Mercedes, which currently leads the sales of premium cars, previously said that launching new models was part of its marketing strategy to boost sales.

Just in front of the Mercedes booth at the auto expo, Porsche also displayed the newly arrived Cayman GT4 and 911 GT RS series.

Porsche would not disclose the price of the two cars, but said that it would take four to five months after ordering for the car to be delivered. (saf)