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wo-wheeler manufacturer PT TVS Motor Company Indonesia, the local arm of Indian automotive giant TVS Motor Company, will depend heavily this year on exports of its products as it struggles to expand its market base in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

TVS’s 20-hectare production facility in Karawang, West Java, can manufacture up to 300,000 motorcycle units annually. Apart from marketing its products in Indonesia, the company also ships them to other ASEAN countries, like Philippines and Myanmar, and a number of African countries, including Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

TVS Indonesia marketing manager Rizal Rizkiawan Tandju said the company, for this year, would still focus on producing export-oriented products rather than increase production for the domestic market.

“This year, the target for overseas sales is to sell around 20,000 motorcycle units, while domestically it’s about 10,000,” Rizal said on Friday evening in Jakarta.

From April 2015 to March 2016, TVS Indonesia sold 17,130 motorcycle units, 88 percent of which were exported. The figure, however, was down by 26.7 percent, from the 23,388 units sold during April 2014 to March 2015, mainly as a result of the global economic slowdown.

The company’s domestic sales target of 10,000, however, seems to be too ambitious as it only sold 1,500 motorcycles during the first five months of 2016.

The struggle reflects the continuing plunge in national motorcycle sales. The latest data from the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI) showed that domestic motorcycle sales stood at 2.44 million from January to May this year, down by 5.79 percent compared to that in the corresponding period last year.

In order to achieve the target, TVS Indonesia is pinning its hopes on its newly launched product, the Apache RTR 200, and an intensified marketing effort, said TVS Indonesia president director V. Thiyagarajan.

“The Apache has a strong engine with a cheap price for such quality, around Rp 24.5 million [US$1,800]. We believe that it will be well received by the Indonesian market,” he said.

The company will also use the 2016 Jakarta Fair, which runs from June 10 to July 17, as a promotion stage for the Apache and its other products, including the Maxx, Dazz and THS Bike.

Thiyagarajan hopes that the event, which was previously known as Pekan Raya Jakarta, will attract around 300 customers to buy TVS’ products.

Such aggressive promotion efforts are also expected to help the company avoid the same fate as its Indian counterpart PT Bajaj Auto Indonesia. In 2013, on the back of continuous sluggish sales, Bajaj decided to close its business in Indonesia and hand over the right to sell its popular Bajaj Pulsar 200NS to PT Kawasaki Motor Indonesia.

Established in 1978, the Chennai-based TVS entered the Indonesian market in 2007 with its Karawang plant. In addition to motorcycles, it also produces the blue-colored gas-fueled bajaj (three-wheeled taxi) that operates in the Greater Jakarta area. (adt)