Toyota projects 8% sales hike this year

MANILA, Philippines - Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) said they will grow faster than the local car industry as they predicted an eight percent growth for this year.

At the same time, Toyota announced they will be bringing in new models of environment friendly vehicles or hybrid units this year.

“We want to renew our sales record this year and sell 50,000 units. I see positive signs in terms of automotive,” newly appointed TMP president Michinobu Sugata told reporters at the sidelines of the company’s annual media party.

According to Sugata, the reason why they forecast that they will renew sales record this year is because the Philippines was not hurt by the financial crisis. “There is no concern of risks,” he explained further.

Although TMP sales will grow, Sugata said that their local production will remain the same as the previous year. For last year, he said their Laguna plant produced 25,000 units which is divided equally between the Inova and Vios.

“We will maintain the local production but we will improve the quality of our local production,” he stressed.

When asked if they will be investing in order to expand their plant capacity, Sugata said that is dependent on the size of the Philippine market. “In order to produce more Innova and Vios, Toyota must increase their production capacity and this is dependent on the environment,” Sugata said.

With regards to their imported hybrid car Prius, Sugata said they were able to sell three to four units per month. He said that they were able to meet their target of selling 20 units for last year. In 2010, he said that they will have flat growth for Prius given the high vehicle cost.

He said that they would like to attract as many hybrid car buyers as possible but said it is difficult given the prohibitive cost of the unit. Sugata explained that the Prius is expensive because the government is not offering incentives for the hybrid. The proposal for the incentive is pending before the House of Representatives.

This year, Sugata said they will be bringing in more hybrid variants. However, he refused to name which hybrid models. He said it can be a sports utility vehicle (SUV) or another passenger car.

For their part, Lexus Manila said they will also be introducing hybrid units this year. Lexus Manila president Danilo Isla said that they will be introducing two hybrid variants this year namely the LS and the RX.

Isla said that they will be introducing the LS in March. He estimated that the LS will cost P10 million. The RX he said will be available sometime next semester.

“Hybrid is not that popular because of the price,” Isla said in a separate interview. “Moneyed people buy the hybrid because they have an advocacy and they are not concerned about the price.”

Last year, Lexus was able to meet its target by selling 172 units. Isla said that Lexus now controls 13 percent of the luxury market. For this year, Isla said that they are projecting growth by selling 200 units and obtaining 15 percent of the luxury market.

“We want to be more aggressive and beef up sales by completing our sales force this month,” Isla said.