MANILA, Philippines - Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) sales grew by 21 percent during the first quarter of this year. Sales from January to March 2014 significantly improved with 12,165 units sold versus the 10,016 units sold during th e same period last year. Based on the combined reports of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturer of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) and Trucks Manufacturer Association (TMA), MMPC was able to capture 24 percent market share.
With the double digit growth that MMPC was able to maintain, sales for all the industry segments were also impressively up as compared to sales during the first quarter last year. Passenger cars sales improved by 37 percent with 2,975 units sold while only 2,172 units were sold during the same period last year. Meanwhile, Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) sales totaled 8,824 units posting a 14 percent increase against 7,715 units sold during Q1 of 2013. Sales for trucks and buses also reflected highly significant growth. Trucks sales improved by 189 percent with 358 units sold while sales of buses went up 60 percent against the same period last year.
Aside from the remarkable improvement on all segments, several models were included on the top ten bestselling list. With year to date sales of 4,333 units, the Montero Sport remains the bestselling LCV and the overall second bestselling vehicle in the country. The ever-reliable L300 Cab and Chassis and Adventure were also included in the top ten LCV list. For the passenger cars the Mirage G4 is on the fourth spot while the Mirage (hatchback) is the seventh bestselling passenger car.
For the first quarter of the year, the local auto industry enjoyed a healthy economic environment and growth on the demand for brand new cars as evidenced by the 23 percent sales improvement that the industry attained at the end of the quarter. “We are very pleased with the result of our first quarter performance which is aligned to the industry’s growth†Froilan Dytianquin VP for Marketing Services commented. “With our first quarter performance, we are on track for our sales objective for the year of selling more than 50,000 units. With our extensive product lineup and with the upgrades that we are about to release for some of our core models, we are confident that selling more than 50,000 units for the year is highly achievable,†Dytianquin added.