These 5 Japanese Brands Control 90% of Indonesia's Car Market

These figures confirm the dominant position of Japanese car manufacturers in Indonesia's automotive industry. Not surprisingly Indonesia is often called "the backyard of Japanese car-makers" and this also makes it tough for European and US car brands. Although they are attracted by the promising perspectives of Indonesia's automotive market (big population, rising per capita GDP, yet still low per capita car ownership), they face serious difficulty to gain market share. That is the reason why several western car brands have closed their factories in Indonesia over the past couple of years (for example American car-maker Ford Motor Company).

With 36.5 percent, Toyota controls the largest market share in Indonesia, followed by Daihatsu (17.6 percent). Both brands are distributed on the Indonesian market by Astra International through its subsidiaries Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) and Astra Daihatsu Motor (ADM). Astra International is one of Indonesia's largest diversified conglomerates as well as a blue chip stock on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (hence a favorite of domestic and foreign investors). However, due to the slowdown in Indonesian car sales over the past couple of years, Astra International's market capitalization on the Indonesia Stock Exchange has somewhat diminished.

Car sales figures in Indonesia rebounded slightly in 2016, and this trend is expected to continue this year. In the first six months of 2017 a total of 533,903 car units were sold in Indonesia, a modest 0.33 percent growth compared to sales in the same period one year ago. Sales in June 2017 were particularly weak due to the Ramadan month and Idul Fitri celebrations. These festivities fell earlier in 2017 compared to 2016 and therefore somewhat distorted the data. By the year-end we still expect Indonesian car sales growth in the range of 1-5 percent (y/y).

Read more: Analysis & Overview of Indonesia's Automotive Industry

It is also interesting to note that there are six registered brands that did not record any sales in Indonesia furing the first half of 2017: Chrysler, Ford, Geely, Infiniti, Jaguar, and Smart.

Indonesian Car Sales (CBU):

Month	Sold Cars    2013	Sold Cars    2014	Sold Cars    2015	Sold Cars    2016	Sold Cars    2017
January	96,718	103,609	94,194	85,002	86,324
February	103,278	111,824	88,740	88,208	95,159
March	95,996	113,067	99,410	94,092	102,336
April	102,257	106,124	81,600	84,770	89,623
May	99,697	96,872	79,375	88,567	94,091
June	104,268	110,614	82,172	91,488	66,370
July	112,178	91,334	55,615	61,891
August	77,964	96,652	90,537	96,282
September	115,974	102,572	93,038	92,541
October	112,039	105,222	88,408	92,106
November	111,841	91,327	86,938	100,365
December	97,706	78,802	73,264	86,547
Total	1,229,916	1,208,019	1,013,291	1,061,859

 

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Car Sales (car units)	894,164	1,116,230	1,229,916	1,208,019	1,013,291	1,061,859
Car Production (car units)	n.a.	n.a.	1,208,211	1,298,532	1,098,780	1,177,797

^{Source: Gaikindo}

Indonesian Car Sales by Brand - 1st Half 2017:

Brand	Sales
Toyota	195.288
Daihatsu	94.287
Honda	93.262
Mitsubishi	53.034
Suzuki	51.764
HINO	12.828
Nissan	9.146
Isuzu	8.167
Datsun	4.759
Mercedes-Benz	2.098
Chevrolet	1.809
Mazda	1.593
UD Trucks	1.286
BMW	1.180
Lexus	724
Scania	611
Hyundai	571
KIA	543
Tata	490
VW	231
MINI	236
Renault	209

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