Passenger car sales slump 5% in June

After showing signs of recovery during the first five months of the year, passenger car sales suddenly went down in June, prompting analysts to say that the improvement may be due only to the introduction of new car models.

The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI) reported yesterday that for June this year, passenger car sales dropped 5.1 percent, or by 106 units, to 1,990 units from 2,096 in the same period last year.

Because of the weak performance in June, passenger car sales during the six-month period declined 1.4 percent, or by 156 units, to 10,894 from 11,050 in the same period last year.

Sales of commercial vehicles, on the other hand, remained positive with the June performance posting a healthy growth of 19.9 percent to 5,191 units from 4,331 units a year ago.

As a result, sales of commercial vehicles for the six-month period posted an overall growth of 15.7 percent to 24,329 units from 28,146 units a year earlier.

Because of the continued strong sales performance of commercial vehicles, the industry managed to post an overall growth of 10.3 percent during the first half of the year with sales reaching 39,040 units from 35,379 units a year ago.

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. continued to lead the industry in terms of total sales performance followed by Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. and Honda Motors Philippines Corp.

Isuzu Philippines Corp. is number four while Nissan Motor Philippines and its affiliate, Universal Motors Corp. is at number five and six overall.

Nissan, however, will introduce a new SUV model which car officials expect to boost its overall ranking.

NMPI president and chief executive officer Jack H.F. Wu yesterday announced that Nissan plans to expand its model line up with the introduction of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) model and an Asian Utility Vehicle (AUV) "in the near future."

The new model will be made this year and is part of NMPI’s aggressive model plan as well as Nissan’s global plan 180.Wu made the announcement during the visit of Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (Japan) to NMPI’s plant in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

Although Wu refused to reveal the new model name, he admitted that "the introduction of the new model lines will reinforce NMPI’s position in the Philippine market which basically favors commercial vehicles."