By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
HONDA Cars Philippines, Inc. is targeting a 3%-5% growth in sales this year amid new product launches and new dealerships, its president said.
鈥淔or 2025, maybe around 3%-5% growth in sales,鈥 Honda Cars President Rie Miyake told reporters on the sidelines of a press event late Monday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 already over 15,000 for 2024, so basically for 2025, we are aiming to align with the market growth. So, definitely, we are going to exceed the result in 2024 this year,鈥 she added.
In 2024, Honda Cars sold 15,518 units, representing 3.32% of the total industry sales.
This reflects a 6.8% decline from the 16,645 units the company sold in the previous year.
鈥淥ur practical and stylish seven-seater, the BR-V, has maintained its status as the best-selling model with over 5,000 units sold,鈥 she said.
The BR-V was followed by the Civic, which had over 3,000 sales, and the CR-V, which had around 1,800 sales.
For 2025, she said that the growth will be driven by the new models and the new dealership stores that the company will be rolling out this year.
鈥淲e already introduced the HR-V hybrid model today. For the succeeding years, our direction is to expand the hybrid models. Today, I cannot mention any specific models or timing, but our direction is always to shift to hybrid,鈥 she said.
鈥淐onsidering the current market situation, we think that the hybrid model is the best solution for Filipino customers to contribute to carbon neutrality. So our direction is to bring in more hybrid models,鈥 she added.
On Monday, Honda Cars unveiled its third hybrid model in the Philippines, the HR-V e:HEV. This will be the third hybrid model that the company is launching in the Philippines.
鈥淵ou have helped us deliver almost 1,200 units of the CR-V e:HEV, showing our customers鈥 acceptance of our hybrid products,鈥 said Ms. Miyake.
鈥淲e initially launched that in September 2023, and since then we have sold almost 1,200 units. In the last two years, the market for hybrids has rapidly grown,鈥 she added.
Meanwhile, she said that the company is adding four new dealerships this year, which will bring the company鈥檚 store portfolio to 42.
鈥淲e will continue to expand our dealer network, bringing Honda products closer to customers all over the country,鈥 she said.
鈥淚n 2025, we plan to inaugurate four new dealerships, namely Honda Cars Talisay, Honda Cars Manila Bay, Honda Cars Tacloban, and Honda Cars Para帽aque.鈥
Asked about how the proposed merger between Honda and Nissan will affect the company鈥檚 local operations, she said, 鈥淭his news sounds like it鈥檚 already decided, but actually it鈥檚 just the start of the discussion.鈥
鈥淣othing specific yet is decided. But if it happens, maybe the impact of the merger on the Philippine market is supposed to be very positive,鈥 she said.
鈥淏ecause if it happens, the objective is how we can maximize the capability of the development of battery EVs (electric vehicles) or software-defined vehicles. So the impact must be positive, but nothing is decided yet,鈥 she added.
