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View all search resultsIndonesia’s vanity ride
A national car is back on the agenda, but what makes President Prabowo Subianto think that this iteration will fare better than similar projects in the past?
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President Prabowo Subianto (front), accompanied by Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (left, second row), Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Agus Subiyanto (right, second row) and other military leaders, inspects forces from aboard his presidential vehicle on Sunday ahead of a ceremony to celebrate the 80th TNI anniversary at the National Monument (Monas) complex in Central Jakarta. (Antara/Fauzan)
H
ere we go again. A national car is back on the agenda, but what makes President Prabowo Subianto think that this iteration will fare better than similar projects in the past?
After all, the automotive industry has only become more internationalized, with global supply chains so integrated that the label “national” hardly applies.
Apparently, funding and land for the manufacturing facilities have been secured, but those are the least of our worries if we want to build our own brand within three years, as the President expects.
Building a car in a commercially viable way requires mass production to achieve economies of scale. That, in turn, requires a mature domestic industrial ecosystem of suppliers and effective linkages with global supply chains.
Patriotic ambition will not build that. Laws and regulations would need to be changed to attract huge private sector investment.
Three years is an unrealistic timeframe to set that up, along with skilled workers, designers, marketing and after-sales services.
Even Thailand, the automotive industry leader in the ASEAN region, does not have a “national car”.
