Almost all car brands posted higher sales in June 2014, led by Daihatsu (30 percentage point growth month-to-month to 15,291 sold units), Toyota (23 percentage point growth to 39,000+ sold units) and Mitsubishi (7.5 percentage point growth to 11,398 units). Higher car sales, particularly the multipurpose vehicle (such as such as the Toyota Avanza and Kijang Innova), were also supported by the absence of public holidays in June (contrary to the months of May and July), implying that there were no disturbances in distribution of cars to wholesale and retail sale dealers.

In the first half of 2014, car sales have reached 641,511 units, a 6.17 percentage point growth from the same period last year. Gaikindo still targets total domestic car sales of 1.2 to 1.3 million units, a slight improvement of 1.2 million car sales in 2013. Despite a slowing economy (+5.21 percent year-on-year in Q1-2014), partly inflicted by a higher interest rate environment (Indonesia’s central bank gradually increased its benchmark interest rate from 5.75 percent to 7.50 percent last year), a weaker rupiah exchange rate and higher inflation, Indonesian car sales have remained at record high levels because of the launch of various new car models and the successful introduction of the low cost green car (LCGC) in late 2013.

Gaikindo official Jongkie Sugiharto said that Indonesians’ purchasing power remains strong with +5 GDP growth. Only when Indonesia’s economic expansion declines to 1 percent (yoy), then the car industry will experience a sharp slowdown.

Indonesian Car Sales (CBU):

 Month    Sold Cars 2012    Sold Cars 2013    Sold Cars 2014
 January           76,427           96,718          103,595
 February           86,486          103,279          111,880
 March           87,917           95,996          113,096
 April           87,144          102,257          106,087
 May           95,541           99,697           97,147
 June          101,746          104,268          109,706
 July          102,511          112,178  
 August           76,445           77,964  
 September          102,100          115,973  
 October          106,754          112,039  
 November          103,703          111,841  
 December           89,456           97,694  
 Total         1,116,230
        1,229,904
         641,511

 

     2008    2009    2010    2011     2012     2013     2014¹
Indonesia's Car Sales
(number of car units)
 607,805  486,061  764,710  894,164 1,116,230
1,229,904 1,250,000
Indonesia's Exports
(number of car units)
 100,982   56,669   85,769  107,932  173,368  170,907  200,000

¹ future forecast
Source: Gaikindo

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