Newly Rampant in Indonesia, Car Price Wars Are Already a Culture in China

KatadataOTO – A price war between various Chinese car manufacturers in Indonesia is starting to heat up, most noticeably during the GIIAS 2025 event.

Many brands are competing to lower vehicle selling prices to attract more consumers, especially amidst weakening purchasing power in the automotive sector.

New brands present in the country need to think about strategies to compete, one of them being Lepas, part of the Chery Group.

“In China, we even have our own word for it, which is ‘neijuan’,” said Ricky He, Deputy Country Director of Lepas Indonesia, on the sidelines of GIIAS 2025 some time ago.

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Literally, neijuan itself means complexity. According to Ricky, this price war phenomenon then results in irrational competition.

“Chinese car manufacturers are always under heavy pressure. Everyone is trying, but there are no beneficiaries,” he said.

Seeing this, Lepas has affirmed that it does not want to take part in the car price war as is widely practiced.

The strategy applied for the Lepas brand is not limited to competitive pricing, but offering modern products with capable features as a premium car.

“We will not participate (in the price war), but will offer more products at prices that meet customer expectations,” Ricky affirmed.

For your information, Lepas is a sub-brand of the Chery Group, bringing three products to GIIAS 2025, namely the L4, L6, and L8. Indonesia is the second country after China where this brand was introduced.

But the manufacturer has not yet released the official price. The L8 is their debut model in Indonesia. It will most likely be equipped with Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) technology.

The technical specifications are still unclear. But the Lepas L8 is believed to be launching soon for Indonesian consumers sometime this year.

The hybrid system in the Lepas vehicle line has the potential to be the same as the Chery Super Hybrid (CSH), which has already been implemented in models like the Tiggo 8 and Tiggo Cross Hybrid.

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Entering the compact SUV segment, what stands out is the unique grille design and the fresh, eye-catching color scheme.

Lepas is targeting young generation consumers who like modern-style four-wheeled vehicles.

For the time being, Lepas will focus on marketing their vehicle line in potential major cities, such as Jakarta.