Promise remains in Indonesia, but Japanese OEMs maintain the lead

If any country has a chance of displacing Thailand as ASEAN’s largest vehicle manufacturer, it is Indonesia, the region’s largest economy overall. However, figures from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) reveal the scale of that challenge: in 2017, Thailand built just shy of two million vehicles, nearly half of ASEAN’s total output. Whilst Indonesia boasted a bigger year-on-year production growth (3% against Thailand’s 2.3%), it lagged behind at 1.2 million units. What’s more, Thailand now has big plans to boost production beyond previous highs to 3.5 million units per annum by 2020. So how realistic is it to expect Indonesia to take the top spot?