The past year has been another banner season for Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation as it sold a total volume of 73,590 units – its highest annual sales volume in its history.
This record-breaking sales reflected a remarkable growth of 19.9% compared to its 2016 sales of 61,400 units, Mitsubishi Motors said in its assessment update.
This is also MMPC’s 11th consecutive year of sales growth pulled up to some extent by its trucks and buses division, which chalked up a whopping 34.8 percent in sales growth.
The whole automotive industry, in fact, enjoyed a buoyant 2017 as the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) & Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) also recorded a significant growth of 18.4% with its 425,673 units.
Given this industry figures, MMPC said it remained to be the second best-selling brand in the local automotive market with its 17.3% market share (CAMPI & TMA’s total sales volume).
MMPC’s continuous sales growth can be attributed to the steady growth of Passenger Car (PCar) segment and significant increase on the demand for Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) and Truck & Bus (T&B) segments. PCar segment recorded a modest growth of 0.6% compared to 2016 after selling 20,690 units. Last year, MMPC commenced the local production of the Mirage models which improved the overall supply of these models thus improving it sales as well. Another driver for the improved sales in 2017 was the advanced purchases generated by the new excise tax which prompted the customers to purchase vehicles before the end of the year. This worked for the LCV segment of MMPC as it posted a remarkable improvement of 29.3% with its total volume of 50,311 units in 2017. Meanwhile, the T&B segment also exhibited notable growth of 34.8% with 2,589 units sold which is attributable to more companies that are now investing on brand new trucks to cater to their business requirements.
MMPC said it was optimistic and continued to aim still for double digit growth and higher market share in 2018, in spite of the very modest to minimal growth for industry demand brought about by the impact of new excise tax implemented at the start of the year.
Despite the challenges that the whole automotive industry may face this year and the obstacles that might come along the way, MMPC is keeping a cautiously optimistic outlook. Froilan Dytianquin, MMPC First Vice President for Vehicle Sales and Marketing said that the company is looking forward that the much awaited introduction of the all-new XPANDER this year will help boost MMPC’s sales and attain its target sales. “Apart from the new model, MMPC will also make the best out of our current model line-up by providing upgrades”, Dytianquin added. Along with its expanding line-up, customer satisfaction will remain to be MMPC’s overall commitment for this market to achieve continuous growth and success, he said. MS Motoring