LCGC Remains Attractive despite Ban on Subsidized Fuel
28 April 2014 16:24 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It has been predicted that consumers would still be interested in purchasing the low-cost green cars (LCGC) despite bans against the car using subsidized oil fuel.
“The policy may have impacts on sales, but we hope it won’t be significant,” Jongki Sugiharto, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Automotive manufacturers (Gaikindo), told Tempo on Monday, April 28, 2014.
Jongki explained there would be an increase in LCGC consumers’ operational costs if they used non-subsidized fuel as it was more expensive than the subsidized one.
According to Jongki, the prices of LCGCs were about the same as used cars that were still allowed to consume subsidized fuel.
“Consumers may think that they should buy used cars because they can fill it with subsidized fuel,” he added.
Jongki, however, said that such consideration was not necessarily true because a new LCGC had come equipped with the latest technology to save fuel.
“An old car with an engine capacity of 1,300 cc is not necessarily as fuel-efficient as a new model with an engine capacity of 3,000 cc,” he explained.
Jongki said it was important for carmakers to educate their consumers about the technology that promoted fuel efficiency installed in LCGC new models. Gaikindo has set a target to sell around 125,000 units of LCGC a year. The association claimed they had sold 80,000 units from October 2013 to March this year.
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