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Hyundai isn’t a big player in Indonesia’s automotive sector.

Not yet, anyway.

Jongkie D. Sugiarto, president director of Hyundai Mobil Indonesia, the sole distributor of cars for Hyundai Motor here, described Hyundai as “a brand in waiting” and a “sleeping tiger.”

Once its South Korean parent company decides to invest in Indonesia, its presence here will strengthen, and it will become competitive with Japanese automakers, he says.

Hyundai became the world’s fifth-largest car manufacturer with car sales of 6.6 million units last year, beating its sales forecast of 6.33 million units.

In Indonesia, though, its market share pales in comparison.

Hyundai’s sales in the domestic market increased 33 percent to 4,786 units in 2011 from a year before. With total car sales here at a record 894,180 units last year, Hyundai’s share was less than 1 percent, compared to 35 percent for Toyota Motor, the biggest seller in the archipelago, based on Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) figures.

“There is a reason why we are lagging behind the Japanese car brands,” Jongkie said in an interview with the Jakarta Globe on Monday. “They have been here since the 1970s. We just came here in 1995. So we had a 25-year lag in terms of presence.”

He also blamed its low market share to a lack of investment in the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Hyundai has to import parts and vehicles from South Korea and has to pay import duties of 45 percent for completely built-up cars and 10 percent for completely knock-down vehicles.

Toyota Motor, meanwhile, pays no duties on its imports of parts and vehicles because those are made in Thailand and are shipped to Indonesia as part of an Asean free-trade agreement.

“And with South Korea? There is no such deal,” he said.

Jongkie, speaking at Hyundai’s main office in South Jakarta, said he was hopeful that the South Korean parent company would pick Indonesia to invest in and build a manufacturing facility, to increase its competitiveness.

“We hope it will be Indonesia. We have been discussing it [with the principal] for years,” he said.

“They asked me once, ‘Why are you so insistent on pushing Hyundai to invest in Indonesia?’ I told them, ‘If you sell automobiles in a country, what do you see?’

“Indonesia is now a country with a market close to one million. Hopefully, we can get there [annual car sales at one million] by 2014,” Jongkie said.

With a nation of about 240 million people, the potential for car sales is stronger than in a country such as Thailand, which has around 68 million, said Jongkie, who has been with Hyundai Mobil Indonesia since it started in 1995.

Mukiat Sutikno, vice president director of Hyundai Mobil Indonesia, said the company was targeting car sales of 6,500 to 7,000 units this year.

Hyundai, with 44 dealers nationwide, currently sells eight models in Indonesia, including the popular Grand Avega hatchback, Avega sedan, Tucson sport utility vehicle, the i10 compact city car and the H-1 multipurpose vehicle.

Asked what would be the ideal investment for a manufacturing start-up, Jongkie said: “For an initial investment, we are talking about 50,000 [units of capacity]. Nowadays, we are talking about $300 million to $400 million in investment.

“That figure considers the price of land, building materials. But this is just my estimate. I don’t know yet what kind of cars they want to produce, what types.”

Jongkie added, however, that the principal had yet to come up with such a figure, and it had not decided where to invest.

In the meantime, his Indonesian team is struggling to improve the image of South Korean cars. When Hyundai first started selling here 17 years ago, its models looked less appealing than the ones from its Japanese rivals.

“I have to admit, building a brand image takes years,” Jongkie said.

“You can have very cool models, but for South Korean brands, people still ask, ‘What about its durability?’ If it breaks down, can we find the spare parts? Is there really someone who can fix this thing? If we sell it again, will the price shrink? All of those questions.”

In a bid to boost the value of used vehicles, Jongkie has cooperated with many dealers to expand the used-car market for Hyundais. The company also guarantees that customers can call a phone number and a Hyundai technician will arrive within one hour to help with a breakdown.

“We provide these things to give peace of mind,” he said.