Philippine new vehicle sales continued to grow strongly in July 2023, by 33% to 37,086 units from 27,813 a year earlier, 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 increase was partly explained by the addition of new members by the two associations, including Hyundai and Chinese brands Chery, Geely and Jiangling Motors. Overall demand for vehicles has continued to increase sharply, however, despite the central bank hiking interest rates from 2% to 6.25% in little over a year.

Philippine economic growth slowed sharply in the second quarter of 2023, to 4.3% year on year from 6.4% in the first quarter and 7.6% in the whole of 2022.

In the first seven months of the year, vehicle sales increased by almost 31% to 239,501 units from 182,687 units in the same period in 2022, with passenger car sales rising by 33% to 60,357 units while commercial vehicle sales increased by over 30% to 179,144 units driven mainly by strong demand for pickup trucks. Toyota has underperformed so far this year with sales rising by just 17% to 110,160 units while Mitsubishi sales surged by 70% to 43,830 units on strong demand for its Xpander and Mirage models. Ford sales surged 54% to 16,611 units driven by strong sales of its new Ranger pickup truck followed by Nissan with 15,674 units (+22%) and Suzuki 10,174 units (-11%).