Toyota Wary of Geopolitical Crisis Impact on Automotive Industry

KatadataOTO – The first week of the new year (3/1/2026) opened with a geopolitical crisis after the United States attacked Venezuela and arrested President Nicolas Maduro. This certainly worsened the world's geopolitical situation, adding to the turmoil of 2025, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the Iran and China-Taiwan conflicts.

Bob Azam, Vice President Director of PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN), mentioned two main problems resulting from the current geopolitical crisis: logistics and the supply chain. He stated that the ongoing turmoil will cause logistics costs to rise, while the involvement of countries around the world in the automotive industry is very large and interdependent.

“For example, the flow of logistics during a crisis in the Middle East will double because shipments have to detour around the Arabian Peninsula. For the supply chain, for example, battery materials come from various countries like China, Ukraine, South America, including ASEAN. Everything will be disrupted,” explained Bob in Bandung (9/1/2026).

According to him, the automotive industry is not designed for bilateral trade or cooperation between just two countries. Currently, the majority of countries in the world engage in multilateral relationships.

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“The current geopolitical crisis is causing the world to seem divided. The threat to the automotive industry today is the interdependence between countries. If one is disrupted, it will certainly hinder this industry,” Bob added.

For context, TMMIN has exported two models, namely the Yaris Cross and an export version of the Agya called the Wigo, to Venezuela. Based on Gaikindo's 2025 records, from January to October, 1,008 units of the non-hybrid G-type Yaris Cross and 5,971 units of the Wigo were shipped.

On the other hand, TMMIN is also still monitoring the Venezuelan crisis situation further and continues to maintain communication with local authorities.

“Since President Trump's era, there has been a lot of turmoil, and now Venezuela is added to it. We have communicated with the Venezuelan side, and everything is okay,” explained Nandi Julyanto, President Director of TMMIN.

He has his own view on the current geopolitical crisis, which is that it encourages countries around the world to make defensive decisions regarding tariffs on certain products and commodities. This certainly has an impact on Indonesia.

“The real issue going forward is about tariffs. But it's not just Indonesia; other countries like China also face the same thing if they don't have a trade agreement,” said Nandi.

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For Latin American countries, Nandi affirmed that Indonesia already has a trade agreement with Peru. However, there are still ongoing discussions to overcome some technical obstacles.

“Discussions have taken place several times, but there has been no follow-up. But for now, it's not a problem because Indonesia's position is in surplus,” he revealed.