Mitsubishi eyes 22% jump in vehicle sales in PH

Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) is confident of hitting its 75,000-unit sales target for 2017, a 22-percent increase from last year’s record sales of 61,400 units.

MMPC said it would be able to hit this target by maximizing the production of its Mirage models under the government’s CARS (Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy) Program.

With the start of local production next month, the company said it had high hopes of reaching its full potential in sales this year given the increasing demand for entry level passenger cars.

The company earlier reported that its sales last year grew by 13.5 percent to 61,400 units from 54,087 units in 2015.

This was the highest annual volume MMPC has ever attained, allowing the company to achieve its 10th consecutive year of annual sales growth.

In the meantime, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) reported that the local vehicle industry sold a total of 359,572 units in 2016, or a growth of 24.6 percent from 2015 levels.

MMPC captured 17.1-percent market share, securing the No. 2 position in the industry, after Toyota Motors Philippines.

The steady growth of MMPC was reflected in the increase in sales of the passenger car, light commercial vehicle (LCV) and truck and bus segments.

MMPC’s car sales hit 20,564 units, up 14.4 percent from 2015. LCV sales improved by 12.1 percent to 38,916 units. It said the popularity of the Montero Sport continued to grow with the introduction of the new generation model at the start of the year. Along with the steadfast growth of the other LCV models such as the L300 and Adventure, the All New Montero Sport improved the total LCV sales from 2015 volume.

MMPC truck and bus sales also showed improvement of 36.8 percent with 1,920 units sold in 2016. Fuso Truck benefited from the change in demand of companies from second-hand trucks to brand new trucks.

For the whole year, the automotive industry is projecting to sell about 430,000 to 450,000 units in 2017. Given the aggressiveness of the players, a healthy economic condition, and the increasing demand for brand new vehicles, the company said there was no doubt this target would be met by the end of 2017.