THE Philippine automotive industry saw a month-on-month decline in April but posted a double-digit increase from the same month last year, data released by local manufacturers yesterday showed.
A joint report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed that new motor vehicle sales stood at 37,314 units in April, 0.4% lower than the 37,474 in March, and 21.8% higher than the 30,643 in April 2023.
“On the demand side, positive consumer and business confidence plus stability in automotive finance boosted sales,” CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez said.
Broken down in terms of vehicle types, there were 10,069 passenger cars; 27,272 commercial vehicles; 6,816 Asian utility vehicles; 19,561 light commercial vehicles; 491 light-duty trucks and buses; 355 medium-duty trucks and buses; and 49 heavy-duty trucks and buses sold.
In terms of brands, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. remained the market leader with a 46% share, followed by Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. with 18.94%, Ford Group Philippines with 6.59%, Nissan Philippines Inc. with 6.38%, and Suzuki Philippines Inc. with 4.16%.
Moving forward, Gutierrez said sales could be boosted by the expansion of tariff exemptions on electric vehicles to include hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plug-in HEV as part of the amendment of Executive Order 12.
“CAMPI is expecting improvement in EV sales ratio this year considering EO12 support. In 2023, the combined EV sales was only 2.5% of total sales,” he said.
Year-to-date sales were recorded at 146,920 units, higher than the 127,927 units sold in the comparable period in 2023.
CAMPI earlier said it expects sales to grow by 9% to 468,000 units this year from the 429,807 units sold in 2023, and this might increase to 500,000 as the group hosts the Philippine International Motor Show (PIMS) later this year. (GMA Integrated News)
