Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC) is confident of increasing its market share this year to 15 percent as demand for sports utility vehicles (SUV) continues to grow.
In a press conference held at the Makati Shangri-la, IPC president Keiji Takeda said they are confident of moving up to the number three spot in terms of sales.
Currently, Toyota is the country’s biggest carmaker followed by Honda and Mitsubishi.
According to Takeda, they expect to sell more than 11,000 units this year, higher than last year’s 9,770 units.
Top sellers for the company remain to be the AUV Crosswind, D-Max pick-up and Altera SUV. Takeda said the three brands will again help Isuzu achieve its sales target.
As such, a new variant of the Isuzu Crosswind will be launched today.
Takeda said the new Crosswind will be the best selling vehicle in the country with estimated sales of 600 units per month
This is followed by D-Max with a projected sales of 300 units per month. Takeda said this is an improvement from the 250 units sold per month last year.
Takeda also said Isuzu will continue to bring in more brands. Unfortunately, the recent decision of the court to bar the importation of used vehicles may have an adverse effect on this plan.
In terms of local production, Takeda said Isuzu is planning to assemble more models locally. However, he said there are external factors that may derail this plan.
“This would depend on how we can keep our competitiveness in terms of cost, productivity and quality,” he said.
At the same conference, Takeda announced the launch of the partnership of IPC, TESDA and Plan International, an international humanitarian child-centered development organization for the maintenance of a training facility in Leyte that will produce top-class automotive technicians.
Under the program 80 poor young men and women that will pass the selection process will be given a two-year training and gain national certificates for auto-mechanic every year.