Hari sees up to 27% growth in sales in ’19

The official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the country targets to sell up to 45,000 units this year, a 27-percent growth that will enable the company to recover sales volume losses in 2018.

Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) president and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said on the sidelines of the Manila International Auto Show (MIAS) on Thursday that sales rose by 16 percent in the first two months of the year.

Perez-Agudo said during the event that Hyundai’s latest additions to its lineup, which she called “rock stars,” included the Palisade, the biggest SUV yet, and the Kona Electric, the country’s first electric sports utility vehicle, which were both launched yesterday.

Wearing a leather jacket with the word “queen” written in sparkling purple, the company chief said Hyundai had been doing great so far.

“We’re doing great. We had a 16-percent increase [in the first two months of the year]. We’ll try to achieve about 40,000 to 45,000 [unit sales] this year,” she told reporters.

In 2018, Hari’s sales fell by 6 percent, reflecting the decline in the total sales of the industry given the impact of elevated inflation and high excise auto taxes on demand for new vehicles.

Hyundai sold 35,401 units last year, lower than the 37,678 units sold in 2017.