Cofounder and CEO Eric Cheng said the Malaysian company was seeing a V-shaped recovery curve since the company resumed its operation in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

“We were able to see a rebound in a few weeks because we are accelerating our digitalization. We are on the right track to achieving our highest growth ever in July,” he said in a press release on Monday.

Carsome saw more than 70 percent year-on-year (yoy) growth in May, despite trimming down its operations while restrictions were in force, Cheng added.

The rising demand for new and used cars was prompted by consumers who wanted to avoid using ride-sharing services and public transportation during the pandemic, the company said.

“We also saw increased demand from used car dealers in replenishing their inventory to meet upcoming demand,” said Cheng.

Indonesia’s automotive industry has been severely affected by the health crisis and the attendant social restrictions intended to curb transmission of the virus, which have battered consumer spending and halted business activities.

Domestic car sales slumped more than 95 percent yoy to just 3,551 vehicles in May to continue the downward trend since March, according to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo).

The country announced its first two COVID-19 cases on March 2.

Cheng added that Carsome had developed new products to cater to the growing demand, such as the CarsomeGO mobile application that allows used car dealers in Indonesia to participate in bids.

The April 2020 Carsome Consumer Survey found that 34 percent of Malaysian respondents, 43 percent of Indonesian respondents and 25 percent of Thai respondents planned to sell their cars in the next 12 months. The top reasons cited among the respondents were to get rid of old cars and to have more cash at hand.

A separate study by classified ads site OLX Indonesia and its used car marketplace OLX Autos Indonesia found that 54 percent of respondents were considering buying a used car instead of a new car.

Meanwhile, PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM) announced on Wednesday that it was recalling 85,025 Honda cars over a suspected fault in the fuel pump. The affected models have been identified as the automaker’s Brio, Mobilio, Jazz, BR-V, HR-V, CR-V, City, Civic and Accord models manufactured between 2017 and 2019.

Honda decided to recall the models to prevent the possibility of their engines stalling or failing to start, the company said in a statement. It was also offering free services to replace the faulty component at official Honda service and repair workshops.

“We urge and remind customers [who own] the designated vehicles to take their cars immediately to an official Honda garage,” HPM service & parts assistant general manager Denny M.T. advised in a statement, stressing that the product recall was to ensure the safety of Honda car owners.

He added that some Honda workshops offered pick-up services, and that replacing the fuel pump would take 60 to 90 minutes.

Honda said that it had contacted the registered owners of the problematic models, but car owners could also check whether their vehicles needed servicing by visiting the dedicated product recall page (pud.honda-indonesia.com) on the Honda Indonesia site or by calling Honda Customer Care at 08001446632 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Customers may also book a fuel pump replacement service through the Honda e-Care app, which can be downloaded from both the App Store and Google Play.

Honda also urged car owners to inform the company if they had transferred ownership, so it could contact the new owner. (eyc/nor)