Vehicles sales grew 20 percent in 2021 from a year ago despite the lingering impact of the pandemic, two industry groups said Wednesday.
The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and Truck Manufacturers Association said in a joint report vehicles sales reached 268,488 units last year, up from 223,293 units in 2020, but still below the pre-pandemic sales of 369,941 units in 2019.
All vehicle segments posted incremental sales outputs in 2021, the two groups said.
“Looking back at last year’s performance, the automotive industry has remained remarkably resilient with an overall growth of 20 percent compared with the same performance a year ago. That is no small feat indeed,” said CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez.
Passenger car sales grew by 22.4 percent in 2021 to 85,260 units over 2020’s 69,638 units, while the commercial vehicle segment sold 183,228 units, up 18.9 percent from 154,155 units in 2020.
Gutierrez said December recorded the highest monthly sales performance since the pandemic hit the industry in March 2020.
Monthly sales in December posted a 5.3-percent increase to 27,846 units from 26,456 units in November. Passenger car sales went up by 2.95 percent to 8,447 from 8,205 units, while commercial vehicles sold hit 19,399 units, or 6.3 percent higher than the 2020 sales of 18,251 units.
Gutierrez said the industry managed to register positive sales growth for four straight months.
Data showed that on a year-on-year basis, sales improved by less than 1 percent in December from 27,596 units sold in the same month in 2020. Passenger car sales fell 3.8 percent in December from 8,781 units a year ago, while commercial vehicles sales outran December 2020 sales by 3.1 percent from 8,781 units.
Gutierrez said the industry is maintaining the positive outlook for 2022, as it hopes to return to pre-pandemic sales levels with more innovative and environmentally-sound automotive technology.
“The industry remains optimistic for a continued recovery this year from the COVID-19 pandemic downturn as progress on inoculation has provided hopes for a better outlook for the wider economy, but ‘business as usual’ is still unlikely as challenges remain at hand,” he said.