Toyota to sell 50,000 vehicles

REPORT FROM BUSINESSWORLD TOP CAR MAKER Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. is eyeing to sell more vehicles next year, with growth likely to be driven by two of the company’s most sought-after vehicles. Company Vice-President for vehicle sales Raymond Rodriguez said the company is expecting to sell close to 50,000 cars by next year. "Coupled with a more stable economy next year, I think we could hit our target of about 49,000 cars. We expect to sell more of our key models such as the Toyota Innova and the new Vios. We also expect strong sales of Toyota Altis," he said in an interview over the weekend. Mr. Rodriguez said Toyota is looking to end the year with 44,700 cars sold, which is about 38%-39% of the automobile industry’s year-end target of 108,000 to 118,000. The company sold 38,300 units last year. For next year, the country’s top automaker is looking to corner about 40% of the market share. "We are coming out with new models... we are revitalizing our whole lineup by next year. We are also coming out with a more aggressive marketing campaign," he said. Toyota earlier set a target of more than 42,000 units by end-2007. The company hit record sales of 42,800 in 1996. Toyota started manufacturing the new Vios at its Laguna plant early this year. Prices for the new Vios start at P575,000 for the 1.3-liter model. The company sold the most number of cars from January to November this year, at 39,843 units, from 34,118 in same period last year. The company cornered about 36.67% of the total market share. The company sold over 38,200 units in 2006 and captured a more than 38% market share. Toyota this year announced that it had sold over 500,000 units after nineteen years of operations and investments in the country of over P20 billion. — Bernardette S. Sto. Domingo/BusinessWorld