Toyota raises 2010 sales growth target to 23%

MANILA, Philippines - Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has raised its yearend sales growth target to 23 percent following an impressive first half performance.

“We have increased our yearend target to 57,000 units from the 50,000 units we announced earlier,” Rommel Gutierrez, TMP vice president said in an interview on the sidelines of the launch of the new Toyota Alphard yesterday.

For 2009, Toyota sales stood at 46,193 units. “We increased our target recently due to the market trend. Everyone’s sales went up,” he explained.

Toyota is looking at getting 39 percent of the total market this year. The entire auto industry is looking at selling 147 units this year. Of the 57,000 units Toyota is expecting to sell, only 24,000 units are produced locally.

Toyota is producing 12,000 Vios and 12,000 Inova annually in their Laguna plant.

At the same time, Gutierrez noted that they will be expanding their production capacity should the government agree to provide production-based incentives to local car manufacturers. He noted that the capacity of their Laguna plant is 25,000 and Toyota is already producing 24,000 units per year.

He said their decision to increase their capacity will be anchored on the support the government will be giving to manufacturers. Gutierrez likewise hinted that they will be adding one more variant to their locally produced fleet once the government decides to prioritize the local auto manufacturing industry.

Meanwhile, Gutierrez said their new Alphard van is similar to their Previa. The Alphard costs P2.790 million while Previa is P2.420. The new van is imported from Japan. He said they expect to sell 10 units per month. Previa sales were at 72 units annually.