In the grand launch ceremony of the Almaz SUV on Wednesday night, Wuling Motors' brand and marketing director Yin Yi said the Almaz is an important product for Wuling this year, especially to attract more Indonesian customers and improve consumer awareness of Wuling's brand, which has been in the Indonesian market since the middle of 2017.

"Through the Wuling Almaz, we want to focus on providing a new experience for customers and on widening our outreach," he said.

Dian Ashmahani, the brand manager of  SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Company Limited (SGMW) Motor Indonesia, the brand holder of Wuling Motors, said she believes that Wuling Almaz has positive prospects in Indonesia, especially since today's market for SUVs is promising. “As we see, today the trend for SUVs is there in Indonesia. More and more people are using SUVs and we see that the market is getting bigger, so we are introducing our SUV here,” Dian said on Wednesday.

The Wuling Almaz is priced at Rp 318.8 million (US$22,649). The strength of the five-seat SUV is in its high tech and digital facilities such as a 10.4" smart multimedia touchscreen where driver controls a tire pressure monitoring system, auto air conditioning, in-ride entertainment, windows and door lights. The SUV also has features like keyless entry, an engine start/stop button and an electric seat adjuster.

The new Wuling SUV is said to have received a warm welcome from customers with a number of cars already ordered. The sales director of SGMW Motors, Yedi Yunandi Sondi, said that from Jan. 26  to Feb.  26, at least 1,000 orders for the Wuling Almaz had been made.

The SUV is one of the most lucrative classes of car in Indonesia, after the multipurpose vehicle (MPV) segment that is still the most competitive in the country. In Indonesia, the SUV market segment is still dominated by Japanese carmaker brands with, for example, the Mitsubishi SUV Pajero Sport and Toyota's Fortuner.

Wuling Motors only entered Indonesia for about two years ago, but it says withing that time it has attracted 20,000 customers across the country. The launch of the Almaz SUV enriches the variety of the products Wuling has already released in Indonesia’s market. 

Previously, the carmaker introduced its Confero S Low MPV in August 2017. The Confero tapped into Indonesia’s MPV segment, which is known to be the most competitive and lucrative segment within the automotive industry, with well-known models such as the Honda Mobilio, the Toyota Avanza, the Daihatsu Xenia and the Mitsubishi Xpander already there.

Meanwhile, in April 2018, Wuling Motors added another product to its line, the Cortez Medium MPV, and later also introduced another passenger car, the Wuling Formo, in late 2018. During the 2018 Gaikindo Indonesia International Autoshow, Wuling hinted it would release a new SUV in 2019. 

Yin Yi of Wuling Motors said that aside from introducing the new product, the year 2019 would be used by Wuling to expand its reach to more Indonesian customers by developing new dealerships. Wuling Motors aims to have a total of 120 dealerships across Indonesia, up from the 93 it currently has.

According to data from the Indonesian carmakers association (Gaikindo), Wuling Motors sold 4,958 units in 2017. Meanwhile in 2018, Wuling Motors sold 17,002 cars wholesale and put itself in the ninth position on the list of most sold brands in wholesale. Japanese carmaker Toyota still topped the wholesale list in 2018 with 352,161 cars, followed by Daihatsu with 202,738, Honda with 162,170 and and Mitsubishi Motors with 142,861.

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