As summer temperatures continue to rise, so does Hyundai Asia Resources Inc’s (HARI’s ) vehicle sales volumes in the country. The Korean carmaker’s exclusive Philippine distributor reported increased vehicle deliveries for the first quarter of 2017, with March sales being the highest in the marque’s 15-year history.
March 2017 figures showed 3,371 Hyundai cars and light commercial vehicles rolling out of showrooms, which were essentially a record number for the brand. This contributed to the stellar 8,841 units being released for the first quarter of the year—which is up by 18% from the 7,469 vehicles sold for the same period last year.
Leading the charge was the hot-selling Hyundai Accent, with 3,385 copies making up the total 5,986 passenger cars sold for the period. The light commercial vehicle segment also grew by 25% to 2,855 units for Q1 2017. This was fueled by the popular H100 utility truck.
So what drove the strong growth, you ask? HARI credits this to the continued infrastructure spending that has allowed the middle class to purchase big ticket items such as automobiles. And with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) projected to stay within the 6.5-7% range for the first quarter of 2017, it looks like there will be nowhere to go but up for HARI and the rest of the Philippine automotive industry.
