MANILA, Philippines — Leading automotive player Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP) is targeting to sell over 200,000 vehicles this year as it expects lower interest rates and inflation to support demand for cars.
TMP president Masando Hashimoto told reporters that as the Philippine automotive market is expanding, the company is aiming to catch up with the fast pace growth of the market this year by selling “more than 200,000” units.
As TMP expects total vehicle sales in the country to reach 476,000 units this year, he said the company’s goal is to account for close to half of the market.
Data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and Truck Manufacturers Association showed that TMP accounted for 46.21 percent of total vehicle sales in the country in the January to September period as the company sold 159,088 units, up by 10.3 percent from 144,232 units in the same period last year.
Last year, TMP sold 200,031 units, cornering 46.54 percent of the country’s total automotive sales.
Hashimoto said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) move to cut interest rates, as well as easing inflation and healthy overseas Filipino workers’ remittances are expected to support vehicle sales.
Last Oct.16, the BSP cut key rates by another 25 basis points, bringing the target reverse repurchase rate to six percent.
Overall inflation in September slowed down to 1.9 percent, its lowest level since the 1.6 percent in May 2020. This brought average inflation in the January to September period to 3.4 percent, within the government’s two to four percent target band.
TMP expects lower interest rates to support its sales with 60 to 70 percent of its customers opting to fund car purchases through loans.
Of the over 200,000 units sales target for this year, TMP expects around 25 percent to be accounted for by the Vios, which is being manufactured in Laguna.
Aside from the Vios, TMP manufactures the Innova.
TMP has also invested P5.5 billion for the production of the next generation Tamaraw, which will be launched next month.
Hashimoto said the company would be happy to receive government support in the production of the Tamaraw.
To support higher sales, he said TMP is planning to expand its dealership network.
“Currently, we have 74 dealer showrooms. So we want to make it bigger soon,” he said, but declined to provide how many more dealerships will be opened this year.
To help reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, TMP is of the view that electric vehicles (EVs) should be part of the solution.
“We believe the government should have more options rather than only a single EV. So options may be hybrid EV or hydrogen vehicle or biofuel vehicle. All those are contributing to the CO2 reduction. So we don’t deny any technologies. That is our stance,” Hashimoto said.