Ayala Automotive unfazed by VW scandal

MANILA, Philippines - The distributor of Volkswagen in the Philippines appears unfazed by the scandal currently hounding the vehicle maker in Europe.

“The emission standards in the Philippines are different,” Volkswagen Philippines president and chief executive officer John Philip Orbeta told The STAR in a chance interview.

Volkwagen returned to the country in 2013 via distribution partnership with the Ayala group through Ayala Automotive Holdings Corp.

Orbeta said it’s business as usual for Ayala Automotive.

“We’re on track to hit 1,000 unit sales,” he said.

The figure includes sales of the newly launched vehicle, Passat.

Last year, Ayala Automotive sold 600 units.  The firm’s five-year plan includes hitting sales of 7,000 units.

The Ayala Group hopes Volkwagen would eventually consider the Philippines as a manufacturing hub should sales continue to improve.

Germany’s Volkswagen already has an assembly facility in Malaysia and is considering setting up another manufacturing plant in the Southeast Asian region, with Indonesia and Thailand as potential candidates.

Other Volkswagen vehicles available in the Philippines include the Beetle, Jetta, Polo Notch, Touran, Tiguan and Touareg.

The Volkswagen scandal has been making headlines the past several weeks. According to reports, there are about 2.8 million Volkswagen vehicles that are affected in Germany, nearly 1.2 million in the United Kingdom and 482,000 in the United States.

At the center of the scandal is a software that would supposedly beat emission tests after the company’s engineers realized the new engines they developed at great expense would not meet emissions standards in the U.S. and other countries.