China's Electric Car King, BYD Wants to Set a New Record in Indonesia
BYD Indonesia may officially enter Indonesia in January 2024, followed by their presence at the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) exhibition 15-25 February 2024. In fact, the company, which was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is recorded as having been able to sell 6.5 million vehicles worldwide.
In fact, BYD has exported vehicles to more than 70 countries with more than 400 cities throughout the world. Eagle Zhao as President Director of BYD Motor Indonesia revealed many things about the strategy of the giant technology manufacturer from China for the Indonesian market.
"This year is BYD's first year of market penetration in Indonesia. Yes, we received a lot of attention from the public, but rather than focusing on SPK (sales), we are more looking at how much people want EVs to be part of their lives," said Eagle , when met on the sidelines of the IIMS 2024 exhibition, Sunday (18/02/2024).
BYD Electric Cars Are Perfect for the Indonesian Automotive Market
Even though it is a new player in the Indonesian automotive industry, BYD has released three battery-based electric vehicle models simultaneously. The three are the BYD Dolphin which occupies the BEV medium hatchback segment, then there is the BYD Atto 3 which enters the BEV SUV class, and the BYD Seal as a BEV sedan.
According to Eagle, these three products represent three different models to meet different market targets in Indonesia. He also said that his party was happy to see the enthusiasm of IIMS 2024 visitors to the BYD booth, even though it had not been five days since the automotive exhibition had taken place.
"We are very happy to see the public's enthusiasm for the BYD booth at IIMS, because we are showing the e-platform and blade battery here, this means that people are increasingly interested in learning about electrified vehicles," said Eagle.
This condition, he said, is in accordance with the initial target set by this manufacturer to further penetrate the BEV market among the Indonesian people.
BYD Wants to Set a New Record in Indonesia
Even though he admits that he is currently not focused on sales figures, BYD's sales record in China is quite astonishing. How could it not be, the company is able to record sales of 3,024,417 units of new energy vehicles (NEV) during 2023.
This figure reflects a year-on-year sales increase of 62.3 percent compared to the previous year with a total of 1,863,494 vehicles sold. In fact, Eagle said that this fantastic amount of sales had occurred two years in a row.
"We want this year in Indonesia to break our own record, because we have dominated the NEV market in China for 2 years in a row," said Eagle.
In order to achieve this condition, he hopes that currently the electrified vehicle market in Indonesia is still 1.8% of the total motor vehicle market in the country, but with the presence of BYD Indonesia, Eagle hopes that the EV market will expand further.
BYD Indonesia Strategy to Introduce Electrified Vehicles
Apart from immediately bombarding the Indonesian automotive market with three products at once in different segments, according to Eagle, his party has also prepared various strategies. BYD, which has more than 20 years of market experience in China, will of course implement several similar steps to face conditions in Indonesia.
"We understand that Indonesia's territory is quite large, but if we look at the NEV market in China, there from 0-1% NEV market share it will take up to 12 years, namely from 2008 to 2019," said Eagle.
"But last year, the NEV market in China has jumped to 38%, this is due to very aggressive market penetration. In fact, this year the penetration will be even more aggressive for the NEV market, even reaching every village. The aim is to introduce more vehicles NEV to the community," he said.
According to him, this is the kind of strategy that will be brought to Indonesia, considering that the results in China have been proven, 2/3 of the global NEV market is from China, it can even be assumed, if there are 3 NEV cars sold globally, 2 of them will come from the market in Indonesia. The Bamboo Curtain.
But of course just penetrating the market is not enough, BYD has also committed to establishing an assembly (manufacturing) factory in Indonesia.
Although regarding the location and when it will start, Eagle only stated that everything is still on track, but he assured that the factory will carry out its main task, namely meeting the needs of units in the domestic market rather than exporting to neighboring countries.
"After meeting the needs of the Indonesian market, it is not impossible for the factory to also meet the needs of other surrounding countries. I am sure that within 2-3 years, Indonesia will become the largest NEV automotive market in the Asian region," explained Eagle.
He also touched on other electrified vehicle markets in Indonesia apart from BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle). According to him, BYD's electric car itself is not only a BEV, but there is also a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) model.
Of the total of more than 3 million BYD car units sold in their home country throughout 2023, 1,574,822 of them were BEV type vehicles which recorded an increase of 72.8% compared to BEV sales in 2022.
Meanwhile, another 1,438,084 units were of the PHEV type, which also experienced a significant increase, namely 51.9% from the previous year with only 946,239 units sold. Eagle said, currently in China, the BEV and PHEV car markets are 50:50, so the composition will be equal, and BYD has both technologies.
“What makes us successful, BYD has a successful technology "house". "We have 70 thousand technicians who always continue to carry out research and development of BYD technologies," he said.
When the time comes for the technologies that have gone through the R&D center to be ready to be applied, the company will immediately use them and be ready for mass production.
This is also what BYD is implementing for the electric car market in Indonesia, so Eagle emphasized that his party will be committed to providing the best products, the best latest technology, with the best sales and after-sales service too.
