Vehicle sales jumped 30.3 percent in May from a year ago, deploying more than 30,000 units to Philippine roads during the month, two industry groups said Wednesday.
The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and Truck Manufacturers Association said in a joint report members sold 30,157 vehicles in May, up from 23,139 units delivered in the same month last year.
“With another impressive sales figure, we can see that there has been continuous demand for mobility,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said the growth was expected to be sustained in the coming months. “We expect new models to reach the market with positive response as we also look at July figures to have a stable to higher sales performance,” Gutierrez said.
Both the passenger car and commercial vehicle segments posted strong sales performance in May. The passenger cars segment sold 10,893 units, up 14 percent from 9,556 units in May 2015.
This brought total automotive sales in the first five months to 134,328 units, up by 25.2 percent from 107,280 units sold in the same period last year.
Campi said rigid competition among assemblers complemented with the availability of stocks drove sales higher as new and refreshed models were introduced to the market.
Campi said within the commercial vehicle segment, all categories exceeded previous sales with 19,424 units sold in May, up 43 percent from 13,583 units delivered a year ago.
Sales of category 1 or Asian utility vehicles rose 34 percent to 5,426 units from 4,060 units a year earlier while purchases of category 2 or light commercial vehicles increased 45 percent to 12,867 units from 8,903 units.
Category 3 or light trucks increased sales by 104 percent to 704 units from 349 units while category 4 trucks and buses also performed well with 57 percent hike in sales to 283 units over 180 units.
Sales of category 5 or heavy-duty trucks and buses reached 144 units, up by 58 percent over 91 units in 2015.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. remained the dominant player with 42.95-percent market share in the five month period, followed by Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. with 18.29 percent. Ford Motor Company Philippines Inc. was third with 10.38 percent.
Isuzu Philippines Corp. ranked fourth with 8.04 percent while Honda Cars Philippines was fifth with 6.69-percent market share.