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Thanks to Xpander, RI now Mitsubishi’s largest market
Once a humble player in Indonesia’s automotive industry, Japan-based Mitsubishi Motor Corporation (MMC) has found its way to the top tier of the competition with Indonesia becoming its biggest international market
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span>Once a humble player in Indonesia’s automotive industry, Japan-based Mitsubishi Motor Corporation (MMC) has found its way to the top tier of the competition with Indonesia becoming its biggest international market.
Mitsubishi sold more passenger cars in Indonesia than in any other of its international markets, the company revealed at a recent press briefing.
Mitsubishi sold 140,191 cars in Indonesia throughout its 2018 fiscal year, which spanned from March 2018 to April 2019. This figure was up 35 percent from the previous fiscal year.
MMC chairman Osamu Masuko attributed the achievement to the company’s launch of its seven-seater MPV, the Mitsubishi Xpander, which saw excellent sales both in its country of manufacture, Indonesia, and abroad.
“Since its launch in August 2017, it [Mitsubishi Xpander] has become our most important model only in two years. The Xpander has been well received, not only in Indonesia but also in many other countries, since exports began in April 2018,” Masuko told the press briefing on July 17.
Within the 2018 fiscal year, its local arm PT Mitsubishi Motors Krama Yudha Sales Indonesia (MMKSI) exported
42,000 Xpander cars to 12 countries in the Southeast Asian and African regions, among other markets.
Mitsubishi’s market share skyrocketed in the last full year, ranking fourth on the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers’ (Gaikindo) wholesale list with 142,861 cars sold and a 12.4 percent market share, up from 79,807 units and 7.4 percent in 2017, respectively. It trailed Toyota and Daihatsu, which are owned by conglomerate giant Astra International, and Honda.
However, Mitsubishi’s sales figures fell to 80,929 cars in the first half of 2019, down 19 percent from 100,122 cars in the same period last year.
The drop came amid a downward trend in the domestic car industry, which has seen a 13 percent drop in overall car sales to 481,577 units in the same period, Gaikindo data shows, with Astra International, the country’s largest automotive company, booking a 5 percent sales decline.
Nevertheless, Naoya Nakamura, president director of MMKSI, expressed optimism that his company would be able to achieve its target of a 5 percent sales increase by the end of 2019.
“Our market share is still stable, so I think many Indonesian customers still appreciate our cars,” Nakamura said on the same occasion.
With satisfying results from the Indonesian market, Mitsubishi will invest 4 billion Japanese yen (US$37.1 million) during its 2020 fiscal year to improve its annual production capacity.
“With this remarkable success, we will also increase the production capacity of our plants [operated by] Mitsubishi Motors Krama Yudha [MMKI] from 160,000 units to 220,000 units by the 2020 financial year,” Masuko said.
In October last year, Mitsubishi also invested a similar amount to localize the production of its Xpander engines as well as to increase the production capacity of its Indonesian plants.
