The growth in local sales of automotive vehicles accelerated to 7.6 percent in June, marking a six-month rally for the industry this year as the commercial vehicle segment—which includes pickups, trucks and buses—continued to drive the momentum.
Data released on Friday by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed that 39,088 new units were sold by local dealers during the month.
This is higher than the 36,311 units sold in the same month last year.
Leading vehicle types, brand
The June posting brought overall sales in the first half to 226,279 units, marking an 11.8-percent growth compared with the 202,415 units sold in the comparable period in 2023.
The Campi earlier set a conservative goal of selling 468,300 units this year.
READ: PH vehicle sales growth sped up to 5.5% in May
Vehicle sales volume in the Philippines reached 429,807 units in 2023, 352,596 units in 2022, 268,488 units in 2021, 223,793 units in 2020 and 369,941 units in 2019.
The bulk of the sales volume consisted of commercial vehicles, with 27,325 units sold, up by 4.2 percent.
Still, the passenger vehicle segment posted the higher sales growth rate, with an increase of 18.3 percent and 8,986 units sold in June.
The commercial vehicles segment also had the larger share of the sales volume from January to June, with its 74.88-percent share equivalent to 151,567 units.
Passenger vehicles took up the remaining 25.12 percent, which corresponds to 50,848 units sold during the six month-period.
In terms of brand, Japanese-made vehicles continued to dominate the Philippine market.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. sustained a wide lead with a market share of 46.29 percent in June.
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. was next with a 19.07-percent share, followed by Ford Group Philippines with 5.68 percent, Nissan Philippines Inc. with 6.09 percent, and Suzuki Philippines Inc. with 4.29 percent.