Full recovery of auto industry seen in 2 yrs

The local automotive industry is expected to fully recover no sooner than two years from now despite the steady improvement in car sales, a top official of a local automotive firm said yesterday.

"The improvement in car sales is still not significant enough to conclude that the industry has recovered," Jack Wu, Nissan Motors Philippines Inc. president said yesterday.

Wu, based his projection on expectations of an economic rebound, foreign exchange stability, low financing rates and the strengthening of the global economy by the third quarter of this year.

For this year, Wu expects commercial vehicle sales to continue to dominate the market.

Commercial vehicles account for 70 percent of total industry sales.

Even though Nissan is not yet expecting a recovery, the car firm decided to launch yesterday its high-end luxury vehicle, the Cefiro which comes in two variants.

The Brougham VIP carries a price tag of almost P1.7 million, while the Elite is a little more affordable at almost P1.4 million.

According to Wu, Nissan hopes to be able to sell about 50 units a month of the Cefiro.

The new features of the Cefiro Brougham VIP, Wu said, are comparable to those of the BMW 7-series and the Jaguar X-type, but at a more affordable price.