Mitsubishi Hopes To Grab 30 Pct Share Of Medium Truck Market

Tokyo, Aug 27 (Antara) - Japanese car maker Mitsubishi hopes to grab a 30 percent share of medium truck market in Indonesia, up from 24 percent last year. "Our hope is to increase the market share soon to 30 percent," Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation (MFTBC) of PT Krama Yudha Tiga Berlian Motors (KTB) Daigo Fukumoto said when visiting Kitsuregawa Proving Ground, Sakura City, Tochigi on Wednesday. Fukumoto said Mitsubishi has produced two new variants in India and the new variants would enter the market in September this year including in Indonesia. In the first seven months of this year, sales of Mitsubishi`s Fuso medium trucks reached 2,600 units or around 23 percent of the market of medium trucks in Indonesia. Last year, sales of Mitsubishi Fuso trucks reached 6,040 units or 24 percent of the total sales of medium trucks in the country. Fukumoto acknowledged so far Mitsubishi had been focused more on light commercial car segment in which Mitsubishi controlled 55 percent of the market. "The presence of the two variants would give us a greater strength in facing our competitors," he said. He said Mitsubishi has sent to the market seven variants of medium trucks -- FA, FI, and FJ series with a gross vehicle weight ranging from 9 to 16 tons. Now with the new variants, FJ 2523 and FJ 2528 (6x2), Mitsubishi entered the segment which has a larger capacity of 25 tons. Head of Public Relation of KTB Intan Vidiasari said this year Mitsubishi is set to enter the Indonesian market with 11 variants of medium trucks. "We predict that the market of medium trucks would increase in the country in the coming years, saying," the two new variants to be imported from India and a number of other variants would be launched this year," Intan said. She did not rule out KTB would assemble the two models in Indonesia.