KIA Philippines president Manny Aligada
MANILA – KIA Philippines targets a triple-digit growth and doubling market share as it expects economic recovery this year.
“Our objective this year is to go for a minimum of triple-digit growth and at least doubling our market share moving in 2021,” KIA Philippines president Manny Aligada said in a virtual media briefing Thursday.
KIA ended 2020 with 2,129 unit sales.
Aligada said the company aims to do a “repeat performance of 2019” where it started with a little over 2,000 unit sales and ended it more than 5,000 units.
“We want to approximate that performance -- triple-digit growth, double the market share -- because of the confidence that the economy will recover, the industry will recover, and the buying public will be excited and inspired as much as we are,” he added.
KIA’s current market share is at 0.9 percent. It aims to finish 2021 with 2-percent market share, he said.
Aligada said KIA will be launching two to four new models this year.
The local distributor of the Korean car will also expand its dealership this year, adding five more networks from its current 40 dealerships nationwide.
However, the car company sees a slower pace of recovery this year with the new provisional safeguard measures on imported passenger cars and light commercial vehicles imposed by the Department of Trade and Industry.
The DTI imposed the trade remedy to protect the local automotive industry, which market share is found to be shrinking between 2014 and 2018 due to the influx of imported cars.
KIA Philippines product strategy and planning director Josh Altarejos said the projected vehicle sales this year is 10 percent lower than the initial forecast following the imposition of the safeguard measures.
Prior to the announcement of safeguard measures, the local automotive industry was expected to sell around 301,000 units this year. But with the trade remedy, sales is seen to reach around 273,000 units by end-2021.
The local automotive industry is also projected to grow by 10 percent annually until 2025, hitting sales of around 439,000 units, Altarejos said. (PNA)
