MANILA, Philippines — The volume of vehicles required to be produced under the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program will remain for now, even as it is unlikely for automotive firms to meet the CARS target given the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) .
Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo told reporters, there are no plans to revise the CARS program at present.
“So far, there are no talks to revise rules and targets,” he said.
This, even as he said he is not optimistic vehicle assemblers would reach the targeted volume of production.
“If at all, they will just be given longer time to comply with the target. That was what was being discussed before. But we will not touch the volume target,” he said.
Through the CARS program, the government is providing incentives to participating automotive firms to encourage investments in vehicle manufacturing.
In exchange for the incentives, participating automotive firms have to manufacture at least 200,000 units of the enrolled vehicle model within a period of six years.
Participants of the CARS program are Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. for the Vios and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. for the Mirage.
Rodolfo said vehicle sales are expected to take a hit from the ongoing health crisis.
Earlier, Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) president Rommel Gutierrez said the group expects the country’s total vehicle sales to decline by at least 20 percent this year due to the pandemic.
While CAMPI anticipates lackluster demand for vehicles in the coming months, the group is hopeful of gradual recovery by the fourth quarter.
As of end-May, CAMPI sales declined by 51 percent to 69,463 units from 142,185 units in the same period last year.
Automotive firms had to temporarily suspend operations of both assembly plants and vehicle dealerships earlier as the government imposed quarantine restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
With the easing of quarantine restrictions, operations of both assembly plants and dealerships have resumed.