Honda vows to expand PH presence

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) has vowed to continue expanding its presence in the country as it launched two more models in the last quarter this year alone.

HCPI President Masahiko Nakamura said this at Thursday’s virtual public launch of the All-New Honda City and New CR-V.

“Every day we try to expand our presence in the Philippines,” said Nakamura saying the company believes they can increase their market share in the automotive share in the country.

“So, even in the very difficult business situation, HCPI could achieve better performance from the past year. So, rest of this year, we still try to expand our presence, not only in the market share, but also in the presence in the society,” he added.

For its new models, HCPI Vice President Louie Soriano said they are targeting around 8,000 unit sales for the allnew Honda City up to the end of the year. He said this goal would be enough to improve its market share and strengthen its presence in the B segment in the passenger car market. For the CR-V, he said HCPI is targeting more or less 2,000-unit sales.

He said the practical individuals who are looking for a vehicle that is fuel efficient with a lot of features will find the new CR-V a good choice.

“I think this opportunity for those who would like to travel as a way of taking advantage of the opening of the tourism sector. So, I encourage them to look for the City and see also the CR-V,” he added.

The new Honda CR-V has retail price range of P1.678 million to R2.158 million while the all-new City retails at R838,000 to R1.048 million.

Launched in 1995, the CR-V enabled people to travel in comfort. The model focuses on utilizing the space of a large wagon and the mobility of a four-wheel drive. To date, the CR-V is sold in more than 130 countries globally and has recorded more than 11.3 million units sold. Throughout its five generations, it is one of Honda’s main pillars.

As the company celebrates its 30th year in the Philippines, Nakamura also reported they have achieved total sales of 20,338 units in 2019. Honda City remained our best-selling model with approximately 7,600 units sold, that was 44 percent share in its passenger car lineup.

For 2020, he said, HCPI continued to be among the top 10 industry leaders in the country.

“We already sold over 5,000 vehicles in the passenger car segment and around 2,600 vehicles in the commercial vehicle segment,” he said noting that in the previous years, both A and B segments remain to be the major contributors to HCPI’s passenger car sales.

Also, the All-New Honda Brio played a major part and the consistent demand for Honda City continues while, Honda BR-V and Honda CR-V, are still stable contributors to its commercial vehicle sales.