JAKARTA - The strategy of lowering vehicle prices or presenting more affordable variants has begun to be followed by a number of Japanese automotive manufacturers. This step was previously identical to Chinese car manufacturers who aggressively offer competitive priced products in the Indonesian market.
At the 2026 Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), several automotive brands from the Land of the Rising Sun are seen launching more affordable versions of models that have been marketed domestically. For example, from two major manufacturers, Honda and Toyota.
Toyota presents the lowest Alphard Hybrid type with a price difference of almost Rp400 million compared to the highest variant. Meanwhile, Honda introduced the facelift WR-V which was actually priced cheaper, even though it was equipped with additional features.
On the other hand, Mitsubishi took a different step by choosing to present a special edition of Destinator and Xforce in celebration of Mitsubishi Indonesia's 55th anniversary. Regarding the tight price competition, Mitsubishi emphasized that it did not make the price slashing strategy as the main focus.
"Of course, price competition is also one of the strategies. But for Mitsubishi it is not the main strategy," said Director of Sales and Marketing Division of PT Mitsubishi Motors Krama Yudha Sales Indonesia (MMKSI) Irwan Kuncoro, on the sidelines of IIMS 2026, recently.
Irwan explained that Mitsubishi focused more on sales programs on the ease of transactions and the process of purchasing vehicles. Therefore, the company is not interested in presenting cheap variants of models that have already been marketed.
"Pricing strategy, giving a massive discount is not Mitsubishi's main strategy. We will emphasize more on services in this case," he said.
Looking at sales performance, Irwan said Mitsubishi consumers tend to choose the highest variant of the model they want. He added, the fleet segment includes various needs, ranging from rentals to operational vehicles.
"The tendency is that in Mitsubishi, the top variant actually has more demand. For the lower variant, there is also demand, especially for fleets," he said.
"For Xpander, maybe around 20 percent is for the segment that we say fleet. That's why our sales composition, 20 percent is for the fleet," added Irwan.
A similar pattern also occurred with the Mitsubishi Destinator, where the highest variant is said to be much more in demand by consumers. This condition makes Mitsubishi reluctant to implement a massive discount scheme or present a new variant that is cheap.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
