Car sales rose 4 percent in January to 31,645 units from 30,425 units a year ago despite the imposition of higher excise taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.
The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association said members still posted positive sales growth year-on-year.
“We started the year with a modest growth of 4 percent in January 2018 against the same period last year. While this is considerably low compared to the growth rate of January 2017 [27 percent up versus January 2016], we still consider January 2018 sales as satisfactory and a good start for the auto industry. We will continue our efforts in sustaining the growth momentum of past years,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez.
Automobile sales, however, slid 30.4 percent from 45,494 units sold in December 2017.
Data showed that while sales of passenger cars dropped 10.9 percent in January to 9,790 units from 10,984 units a year earlier, sales of commercial vehicles increased 12.4 percent to 21,855 units from 19,441 units in the January 2017.
The light commercial vehicle segment registered the highest growth of 23.3 percent to 15,218 units from 12,340 in January 2017.
Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. remained the market leader with 39.14-percent market share, followed by Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Inc. with 24.13 percent, Ford Motor Company Philippines Inc. with 8.19 percent, Nissan Philippines Inc. with 7.12 percent and Isuzu Philippines Corp. with 5.92 percent.
Members of Campi and TMA sold 425,673 vehicles in 2017, up 18.4 percent from 359,572 units in 2016. Together with sales of other industry groups, the industry sold nearly 500,000 units last year.