The year 2016 is looking good for the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID) as it posted a strong 77% sales growth for the first nine months of the year. In fact, the third quarter alone saw a 27% rise in purchases, compared to the same period last year.
The strong performance was led by the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment, which grew by a rousing 82% to 42,317 units sold. Leading he charge was Ford Philippines, whose sales rose b a whopping 172% from January to September of 2016.
Passenger cars, meanwhile, had a 69% increase with 26,429 cars released during the same period. This was a significant jump from the 15,652 examples sold last year. The third quarter witnessed a growth of 40%, thanks in no small part to Hyundai Asia Resources Inc (HARI) leading the way at 53%.
The strong surge in vehicle demand can be attributed largely to a rising second quarter Gross Domestic Product of 7%, up from 6.8% in the first quarter of the year. This translates to a first-half year GDP growth rate of 6.9%.
Beyond he numbers, all these figures simply show that Filipinos have the power to purchase more new vehicles. And with the year about to come to a close, it looks like we’re on our way to another record season.
