Indonesia plans to launch 3 national car brands

Manufacturers of three new national car prototypes might need a combined investment of US$100 million to launch assembly plants to mass produce three brands in the future, the Tawon, Gea and Arina, according to the Industry Ministry. Panggah Susanto, director for land and military transportation, said that each of the three national car brand owners would require more than US$30 million to build an assembly plant, with a production capacity of 5,000 to 10,000 units per annum. The three cars are expected to be priced at around 50 million rupiah (US$5,000) each. The four-wheel Gea has been developed and tested by the producer, state-owned train manufacturer PT Industri Kereta Api (Inka), since last year. Meanwhile, Arina and Tawon are being developed by Semarang State University (Unnes), while an unnamed Serang-based company is making the Tawon. (August 26, 2009)