Toyota Philippines to Market Prius This Year
March 11, 2009 by Tsikot
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMPC) said there would be no additional expansions this year instead the country’s biggest car company will be launching its eco-friendly Prius model, work on some initiatives to stop other car companies from further eating into its market share and new financing schemes for its volume models.
Saying they are technically ready, TMPC president Hiroshi Ito said they are launching Prius in the local market by middle of this year.
“We are technically ready now. We have completed all the technical adjustments,” Ito said but he refused to give any details of the launch. TMPC has already briefed its dealers about the coming of Prius into the local market.
With the forthcoming launch of Prius, Ito expects some kind of assistance that is “generous as possible” from the government to promote this environment-friendly vehicle.
Prius will be imported completely built up from Japan, the only source of Toyota’s hybrid car.
As far as 2007, TMP said it was doing “technical” adjustments for its hybrid car Prius to fit road conditions in the Philippines as well as other developing countries.
A number of Prius units were brought to the Philippines so they can be tested under local road and traffic situations.
Ito said then that while Prius will eventually be sold in the domestic market, it make take some time before the world-renowned and environment-friendly Prius could commercially ply Philippine roads.
“The problem is technical. As our responsibility as manufacturer, we want to make sure there is no problem [with the car] even with bad roads,” Ito said.
The Prius is powered by a combination of electric and conventional internal combustion engines. Either the engine or the battery or both can power the vehicle, depending on conditions. This feature gives the vehicle the acceleration and power of a standard automobile, which has a larger gasoline-burning engine.
On the other hand, Alfred Ty, TMPC vice-chairman, told reporters at the launch of Lexus RX350 that the company is looking at ways to protect its market share.
“Capital expenditure will not be substantial this year. This is not the right time to invest more because of the global financial crisis but we are looking at sustaining our operations,” Ty said.
But the company cannot just sit down and watch its market share being slowly diminished by the car models of other companies because they do not have a model in these specific categories.
“Seven years of triple crown, we cannot just sit on it,” Ty said. These moves, however, do not require additional capital expenditures saying this is not the right time to invest.
For this year, the company will be launching few model completely built up models.
Ty also acknowledged that the company’s absence in the smaller and more affordable cars have cost them a few points in its market share. TMPC’s market share in 2008 was down to 36.07 percent from 38.2 percent in 2007 as other small but more affordable cars of other car companies cornered this category.
“We will look and study at that, we are watching that closely because we cannot take that for granted,” Ty said.
“We are working on it,” he added.
While TMPC’s Vios and Innova are its bread and butter models and the number one brands in their categories still these could not fill the absence in the small car category in terms.
Dexter Pasion, president of Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corp., also said that the company is coming out with financing schemes for its volume brands such as Innova, Vios and Altis.
The company is launching its lease-finance or lease to own scheme where the vehicle is registered under Toyota and not under the name of the buyer. Under this scheme, the buyer is free from paying the chattel mortgage fees which could amount between P18,000 to P20,000 excluding interest.
This promo is good for 30 days only exclusive only for the Toyota group.
TMPC is also maintaining its low down payment schemes of 10 percent and 72 months payment period as against the standard financing schemes of banks of 20 percent down payment and 48 months to pay.
by Bernie Cachiles-Magkilat, Manila Bulletin
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are they going to bring in the 3rd gen prius or older models?
Produce it in Thailand to cut the cost! But continue to manufacture the batteries in Japan!
Plus, make it plug-in ready. :p
uhm what do you mean by "make it plug-in ready"?
Plug-in ready means when the car is parked an the engine is off you can plug the car's battery in to a normal power outlet to charge it. And so you can run on electric only longer so that the gasoline engine will have less use.
I suggest that they should bring both the 2nd generation together with the third generation Prius to the Philippines, just like what the U.S. is doing.
I cant believe you guys don't have Prius yet. I hope it's not the older model..Older model is really ugly.. The bnew ones are cool. Small. But cool.
Good luck!
the price is nonsense.. here in japan and US it only goes around 1.8M yen (900K Php). I cant immagine how it went up to 2.25M Php! you guys planning to buy this, you will just waste your money, this is not even a luxury car. just a taxi level..
bring the price down!!!