The Philippines new vehicle market was up slightly in April 2019, by 0.8% at 25,799 units from 25,583 units in the same month of last year, according to member wholesale data released jointly by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).
The data do not include non-affiliated brands, including Hyundai, Chevrolet and Subaru, which together accounted for around 12% of the total market last year.
Sales of commercial vehicles rose by close to 16% last month to 18,138 units from15,673 units a year earlier, helped by strong demand for pickup trucks and newly-launched passenger utility vehicles (PUVs), while passenger car sales declined by close to 23% to 7,661 units from 9,910 units.
Overall sales in the first four months of the year were slightly lower at 111,187 units compared with 111,620 units a year earlier, with passenger car sales down by 12.8% at 33,833 units while commercial vehicles sales rose by 6.3% to 77,354 units.
Toyota claimed a 40.5% market share in this period, followed by Mitsubishi Motors with 18.7%; Nissan 12.0%; Ford 6.9%; and Honda 6.6%.
While the overall market is struggling to recover from last year’s excise tax increase, CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez remained optimistic that full-year sales will be higher than last year.
