Tucson Is Still Imported From South Korea, HMID Revealed The Reason

The latest generation of Hyundai launched in Indonesia (Photo: Bagus Muhammad Hafizh/VOI)

JAKARTA - PT Hyundai Motors Indonesia (HMID) has officially released the latest Tucson for the Indonesian market as well as becoming the second Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) model which is marketed in the country after the All -New Santa Fe.

But unlike Santa Fe which is a local assembly (CKD) of the Indonesian Hyundai Motors Manufacturing Factory (HMMI) in Cikarang, Tucson still holds the status of a whole import vehicle (CBU) from South Korea.

This was confirmed by the President Director of PT HMID, Ju Hun Lee revealed that his party still needed to test the market from this model before being able to determine whether Tucson could be assembled locally or not.

"For now, the Tucson that we introduce is CBU from South Korea. We will see the response of the Indonesian people. If it starts to be stable, we will make sure the CKD assembly from Tucson, "Ju Hun Lee told the media at SCBD, Jakarta, Thursday, November 21.

PT HMID's Chief Operating Officer, Fransiscus Soerjopranoto also added that the C segment occupied by Tucson was not as big as other SUV markets in the country so that his party decided that the model was currently sold in CBU.

"We made the decision to sell C-SUV to Tucson even though the market was not so big. But, we also want to know what market response is like, "added Frans.

However, Frans also added that if there were so many Tucson revenues, it was certain that this SUV was not only assembled locally, but could also be exported to several markets in Southeast Asia.

"If the market response is large, then we can assemble Tucson locally so that Indonesia can later become a hub for exports to the Southeast Asian region," explained Frans.

At present, HMID sells fourth generation Hyundai Tucson with prices starting from Rp. 632 million for the ICE variant and Rp743 million for HEV. If the manufacturer decides to assemble it locally, there is a possibility that the official price will go down and be more friendly for consumers in the country.