Sales of imported vehicles grew exponentially in April, supported by the strong recovery in all segments, according to the latest data from the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID).
AVID data released on Tuesday showed that imported vehicle sales reached 4,496 units in April, a substantial improvement from last year’s 18 units.
Total sales from the passenger car (PC) segment for the period skyrocketed to 1,087 units from 7 units in the previous year.
The light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment saw its sales jump to 3,116 units in April from 11 units last year. Commercial vehicle (CV) sales, meanwhile, reached 293 units for the period. AVID noted that the segment recorded zero sales last year. In the first four months, the imported car distributors logged a 40-percent uptick in sales at 20,353 units from the previous year’s 14,572 units.
The LCV segment accounted for the bulk of sales with 14,314 units sold as of end-April, which is 44 percent more than 9,906 units last year. Ford Group Philippines sold the most in this segment with 6,023 units, followed by Suzuki Philippines Inc. with 3,732 units and Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. with 2,069 units.
PC sales improved by 16 percent to 5,328 units in January to April from 4,574 units for the same period in 2020. Suzuki dominated this market after selling 2,658 units for the period; Hyundai came in second with 1,798 units. CV sales, all of which were accounted for by Hyundai, grew by more than sevenfold to 711 units from last year’s 92 units.
“They say you cannot emerge from challenging times untransformed. With these encouraging figures, I say we at AVID have boldly transformed ourselves and have become even better at what we do, which is to provide our customers an end-to-end mobility experience that best suits the needs of the times,” AVID President Maria Fe Perez-Agudo said.
Image credits: AP/Gene J. Puskar