At a glance
- Client: An Australian online vehicle-auction start-up
- Sector: Automotive / cross-border B2B marketplace
- Region: Indonesia (client based in Australia)
- Service: Market-entry feasibility study (expert interviews and regulatory review)
The challenge
An Australian start-up runs an online auction platform for exporting vehicles. It was weighing a significant investment to enter Indonesia and asked us a direct question: should it go in? To answer, it needed to know three things. Can Australian-sourced passenger vehicles, including used and ex-demo units, legally be imported and sold in Indonesia? How do Indonesian importers source vehicles today, and where does it hurt? And would they use an international digital platform, live auctions or escrow to buy? The client wanted practitioner evidence, not desk assumptions, before committing money.
What we did
- Built a lead list of roughly 90 automotive import professionals and approached them directly on LinkedIn over November 2025.
- Ran 8 in-depth, semi-structured interviews (30–45 minutes each, in Bahasa Indonesia, online and face to face) across three groups: 5 OEM importers and official distributors, 2 customs brokers and freight forwarders, and 1 dealer.
- Selected respondents with hands-on roles in regulatory affairs, homologation, customs clearance, logistics, procurement and government relations.
- Transcribed each interview in Indonesian and English and wrote short summaries, then cross-checked timelines, rules and cost points between respondents rather than merging conflicting answers.
- Checked interview claims against the regulations themselves, including Minister of Trade Regulation 36/2023, Minister of Finance Regulations 202/PMK.04/2019 and 213/PMK.06/2020, and customs regulations PER-2/BC/2022 and PER-5/BC/2025.
- Added public trade data (BPS motor-vehicle import values by country of origin) and news sources on market shifts.
- Reported weekly progress to the client during fieldwork.
Topics covered
- Import rules for used, ex-demo and ex-display vehicles
- Customs clearance: green and red channels, documentation and tax assessment
- Licensing, quotas, type testing, emission standards and local-content (TKDN) rules
- How importers source vehicles and who controls supply
- Payment terms, currency exposure and margins
- Appetite for digital platforms, live auctions and escrow
- Alternative entry routes in industrial and project-site segments
What we delivered
A full research report (about 30 pages) with an executive summary, objectives and scope, method and sample, respondent profile, findings for each of the three research objectives, deep-dives for each respondent group, cross-segment insights, market and product implications, recommendations and a glossary. Alongside it the client received a set of interview short summaries and weekly progress updates during fieldwork.
Indonesian market research report
Report (Google Doc) · About 30 pages
- Executive summary with a go/no-go verdict
- Method, sample and respondent profile (8 interviews, 3 groups)
- Findings on import regulation and compliance
- Findings on current sourcing practice and pain points
- Findings on digital platform and auction readiness
- Deep-dives per respondent group and cross-segment insights
- Market and product implications
- Recommendations and glossary of Indonesian import terms
Interview short summaries
Document · 8 interview summaries
- Summary of each interview
- Grouped by importers, brokers/forwarders and dealers
Weekly progress updates
Slide deck · Weekly updates, November 2025
- Lead-generation and outreach progress
- Interviews completed and planned
- Report and question-guide drafting status
What we found
- Verdict: No-Go for an auction-based second-hand passenger vehicle model. Under Minister of Trade Regulation 36/2023, used, ex-demo and ex-display vehicles that have been driven overseas cannot be imported for commercial sale.
- Temporary-import and ATA Carnet routes do not open a back door: Minister of Finance Regulation 202/PMK.04/2019 treats them as temporary movement, not commercial entry.
- Australia is not a sourcing origin for passenger vehicles entering Indonesia. Respondents reported no commercial passenger-vehicle imports from Australia; where Australia appears, it is only a routing point for cars built elsewhere.
- Supply is controlled by the global brand principals. Local importers cannot source outside principal-approved channels, even when demand exceeds allocation.
- Clearance delays come from document errors, not unclear rules. A single wrong digit in a VIN or engine number can move a shipment from a 1–3 day green-channel clearance to 5–10 days in the red channel.
- We recommended repositioning from a B2C marketplace to B2B trade-enablement services for eligible segments (heavy-duty vehicles, special-purpose equipment, project fleets), with documentation accuracy as the core service.
In numbers
- OEM distributors work on gross margins of about 3–5% per unit (interview data, 2025).
- Green-channel customs clearance takes 1–3 days; red-channel inspection 5–10 days (interview data, 2025).
- China was Indonesia's largest source of imported motor vehicles by value in 2024, at US$1,992 million, ahead of Japan at US$1,091 million (BPS, 2025).
- Chinese brands sold 82,436 units in Indonesia in January–October 2025, about 13% of national wholesale car sales (ANTARA, cited in the report).
Key takeaway
Check the legal pathway before the market size: if the regulation closes the door, the useful answer is a clear no plus the narrower route that is still open.