BMW Astra Confident Competing with Chinese Cars in the Premium Segment

KatadataOTO – The competition in Indonesia's new car market is quite fierce. This is because four-wheeled vehicle manufacturers from China are also targeting the premium segment.

Take for example the presence of Denza, Xpeng, Maxus, and Jaecoo. They are offering their flagship products to consumers in the country.

Seeing this, BMW Astra is quite relaxed in facing the competition from Chinese manufacturers.

“We don't really see it as a threat to us, because product-wise, we are not actually head-to-head,” said Sanfrantis Tanu, Chief Executive of BMW Astra in Cilandak, South Jakarta, on Tuesday (08/07).

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He further explained that the majority of Chinese manufacturers market electric or hybrid cars.

Meanwhile, BMW Astra sells Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) four-wheeled vehicles and also competes in the Electric Vehicle (EV) space.

Therefore, with this strategy, consumers have many options when they want to purchase BMW cars.

Thus, BMW Astra is quite confident in facing the competition from Chinese car manufacturers.

Sanfrantis believes that the opportunity in the premium vehicle segment is still quite large. So it is possible to attract more consumers.

“So we see that there is still an opportunity in this kind of situation. Even though they are premium, our products are different,” he continued.

He revealed that with the quality and innovation offered by BMW, it is able to make consumers in Indonesia fall in love with the brand.

So they will choose BMW cars, which are already known to have the best quality in their class.

“I believe that our products (BMW) are not inferior to theirs, far from it,” Sanfrantis asserted.

A similar sentiment was previously expressed by Peter Sunny Medalla, President Director of BMW Group Indonesia. He admitted to being quite confident in competing with Chinese car manufacturers in the Indonesian market.

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“We will not play their game (price war). BMW will remain prestigious, premium, and provide you with different innovations for each of our EVs (Electric Vehicles),” he said on a different occasion.

Sunny explained that the products offered by BMW will not make their consumers switch to using other vehicles.

“When consumers try (premium electric cars from BMW and China), the feeling will definitely be very different. So we will not compare specifications on paper,” Sunny concluded.