Toyota’s Low-Cost Green Cars Agya, Ayla Start Drive on Indonesia’s Streets

Jakarta Globe, Carla Isati Octama & Tito Summa Siahaan, September 10, 2013

A Daihatsu Ayla at the 2012 Indonesia International Motor Show in
Kemayoran, Jakarta. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

A year after the initial announcement, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota Motor and Astra International, Indonesia’s largest car distributor, introduced their low-cost and environmentally friendly vehicles on Monday and estimated that there would be sales of more than 30,000 units this year.

The cars — Astra Toyota Agya and Astra Daihatsu Ayla — have qualified for the government’s low-cost green car (LCGC) policy, which excludes the luxury tax on such cheap and environmentally friendly cars by between 25 percent and 100 percent.

Agya and Ayla are developed and produced by Astra Daihatsu Motor, Daihatsu’s joint venture with Astra International in Indonesia. Daihatsu is part of the Toyota group.

Both cars were modeled at the Indonesia International Motor Show in September last year with a price tag below Rp 100 million ($8,950), attracting tens of thousands of orders from customers in Indonesia. But the government was not able to complete the LCGC technical regulations — on which the cars’ cheap price relies — until July, substantially delaying production.

Now the companies have placed high hopes on the cars to boost sales this year.

“We are confident that the Agya, a car designed specifically to meet the needs of Indonesian consumers, will be popular,” said Johnny Darmawan, Toyota Astra Motor’s president director.

“The sale price for the Agya will range from Rp 99 million to Rp 120 million, with monthly sales target in 2013 of 5,000 units,” Johnny said.

“We hope Astra Daihatsu Ayla can contribute to the growth of car market and industry in Indonesia as expected by the government when they issued the LCGC regulation,” Sudirman MR, Astra Daihatsu Motor’s president director, said.

Toto Suryana, chief operation officer at Astra International, said the company expected Ayla — which will be sold at between Rp 76 million to Rp 107 million — to reach 16,000 units sales by the end of this year.

He said production had begun last week and consumers should expect to begin receiving the cars in the next two weeks.

The Agya and Ayla join other jointly developed TMC-Daihatsu vehicles on the Indonesian market, such as the Toyota “Avanza” and the Daihatsu “Xenia”.

Data released by the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) showed sales were up 12 percent to 601,952 units in the first half of the year. The group of 42 members has forecast car sales this year to hit 1.1 million units, matching last year’s result but suggesting a slowdown in the second half of the year.