Honda Philippines eyes higher sales

MANILA, Philippines — Automotive firm Honda Cars Philippines Inc. expects its sales growth to exceed 25 percent in the remaining months of the year driven by the launch of a new vehicle and better supply availability.

“For the remaining months of the year, for September to December, we are targeting to grow more than the industry. That’s basically our target,”Honda Cars Philippines VP and general manager for sales division Louie Soriano told reporters on the sidelines of the recent CR-V launch.

Latest data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed that Honda registered a 21.3 percent increase in sales from January to August, selling 11,350 units.  This resulted in a 4.11 market share, making it the sixth top automotive firm in terms of sales during the period.

Asked what will drive the company’s sales growth in the remaining months of the year, Soriano identified the launch of the all new CR-V and the availability of its HR-V vehicle.

It will be recalled that in September last year, Honda Philippines issued an apology due to supply problems regarding the vehicle.

Soriano said the reason for the supply problem was the lack of microchips and some parts.

“And now it is available. They [HR-V] are available now in all of our dealerships,” Soriano said.

Last week, Honda Philippines launched the new generation CR-V, the first local model to receive the e:HEV technology, Honda’s full-hybrid system.

“I think because of the newness of this model, I think we’re going to achieve that target of 300 units per month,” Soriano said.

Soriano said around 30 percent of this sales target will be composed of the e:HEV variant.

“I would also like to mention that the e:HEV will still be available next month. The petrol variant is already available in our dealerships,” Soriano said.

He shared that they saw strong interest from the market during the pre-selling period of the latest CR-V.

“We saw this strong interest because we had what they call the pre-selling campaign and then we received a lot of bookings.Based on our target, we over achieved our target for pre-selling bookings. I think the existing booking now is more than 200 [units],” Soriano said, noting that this is double the 100 units the company initially targeted for the pre-selling period.

He added that the pre-selling campaign was started three weeks prior to the launching of the vehicle.

Soriano said the target market for the vehicle are luxury-seekers.

“We call them luxury seekers who are well established business owner professionals and they put value on on premium features like technology, safety, convenience,” Soriano said.