Toyota aims to sell 90,000 cars this year

MANILA, Philippines - Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMPC) is banking on the newly launched Corolla Altis and three other vehicle models to be introduced this year to achieve sales of more than 90,000 units, an official said.

TMPC president Michinobu Sugata told reporters that aside from the new Altis launched on Wednesday, the company is planning to introduce three more vehicle models to support higher sales this year.

“For Toyota, we expect to sell more than 90,000 units this year because of new model introductions such as the Altis and three more models,” he said.

Last year, TMPC’s total sales hit an all-time high of 75,587 units, surpassing the company’s projected sales of 75,000 units for that year.

Sugata said the company aims to sell 500 units per month of the newly launched Altis.

“Our target market for this model is the relatively affluent younger generation,” he said.

The new Altis, which is available in seven variants and imported from Thailand, is priced between P836,000 to P1.216 million.

Next month, Sugata said the company is set to introduce, another vehicle model here.

But while the company is introducing new vehicle models, it has no immediate plans to manufacture new vehicle models to add to the Vios and Innova which are assembled at its plant in Santa Rosa in Laguna.

“We are still studying what other models can be assembled here and we are waiting for the roadmap,” he said.

“We want to see some incentives for car companies,” he added.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was supposed to release the roadmap which would contain strategies to support the growth of the local automotive industry, last year.

The release of the roadmap has been delayed, however, as the National Economic and Development Authority Board has requested for more information on incentives offered by other countries in Southeast Asia to vehicle assemblers.

DTI Secretary Gregory Domingo said late last year the government intends to release the roadmap within this quarter.

Under the proposed roadmap, the DTI plans to provide incentives to car companies which are able to assemble 40,000 units per model per year to encourage them to raise output and export.

Aside from the Altis, Vios and Innova, TMPC sells other vehicle models such as Camry, Yaris, Land Cruiser 200, Prado, RAV4, Fortuner, FJ Cruiser, Avanza, Alphard, Previa, Hiace, Hilux, Prius and Prius C.