Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. has disclosed a long-term plan to export vehicles made in the Philippines to other Southeast Asian countries.
MMPC president and chief executive Yoshiako Kato said the company was looking at Asean as the initial export market, while studying a model that would fit the specifications of both local and foreign markets.
“Exporting overseas is not easy because the quality requirement very high. All I can say for now is that we will concentrate on the domestic market and export is the next phase,” he said.
The company is still on the drawing board as far as the proposed model for the required four-wheel sedan-type passenger car that would participate in the government’s automotive production program.
Under the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program of the Trade Department, companies are required to put in new investments to produce at least 200,000 units of passenger cars in six years to qualify for as much P27 billion worth of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.
Mitsubishi is looking at enrolling a small passenger car that that could be afforded by the middle class.
Kato said the company would formally submit its application in March or once its parent company in Japan had reconciled all factors for the manufacture of a new model for the Cars program.
He said the two main considerations were the built and body of the vehicle.
“If we export, we have to adjust to our target export markets. For one, there are markets that are right-hand drive like Thailand and we should also consider the body size since the Philippines have different specifications compared to other countries,” said Kato.
MMPC aims to increase sales to 70,000 units in 2016, or 30 percent higher than the record sales of 54,087 units in 2015.
MMPC said sales in January jumped 50 percent year-on-year to 4,867 units, on the back of the brisk sales of the all-new Montero Sport vehicles.