Toyota vehicle sales surged 23% in January

TOYOTA Motor Philippines (TMP) started the year strong as its vehicle sales surged by 23 percent to 8,709 units in January this year, enabling the country’s leading automotive company to cement its leadership in the market.
The company’s sales performance outpaced the 19-percent growth recorded by the whole automotive industry, whose cumulative sales reached 18,662 units in January.
According to TMP, this robust sales performance can be attributed to the high demand for its locally manufactured models, the Innova and Vios, as well as other vehicles in Toyota’s extensive product lineup.
“It is encouraging that Toyota started the new year strongly. Coming from a good performance last month, we are optimistic that demand will continue to be favorable because of the positive economic outlook and confident consumer spending,” TMP president Michinobu Sugata said in a statement issued Friday.
Even TMP’s luxury brand Lexus was able to record its highest sales volume in a single month, as it managed to sell a total of 67 units in January 2015.
This allowed Lexus to become the No. 1 luxury brand in the market.
“With a 91 percent growth versus the same period of last year, this only shows that there is more to come for Lexus this 2015,” TMP added.
For this year, TMP expects vehicle sales to grow by 4 percent to 110,000 units, from the 106,110 units sold in 2014.
This “conservative” estimate was due to the fact that the company wanted to focus more on its after-sales service, given the growing number of Toyota vehicle owners in the country. This year is seen as a transition year for Toyota, which is looking to double its vehicle sales to about 200,000 units by 2020 to retain its market leadership in the local automotive sector.
TMP is also expanding its dealer network with 10 new dealerships this year.
It has also set aside a P2.5-billion capital outlay to prepare for the model change of the Innova.
Sugata said Toyota spent about the same amount for the upgrade of the top-selling Vios model.