Foton Motor Philippines, Inc. (FMPI) received multiple accolades at the Foton Asia Pacific Partners Conference 2025 held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 27 to 28.
FMPI was honored with the Excellence in New Product Launch and Outstanding Sales Contribution Team Awards, reflecting its commitment to providing dependable, world-class, and value-packed products and services to the Philippine transport industry.
FMPI General Manager Levy Santos took to the stage twice to receive each award, after which he delivered an acceptance speech.
“This success was never accidental. It was the result of an unwavering partnership. Foton Motor China provided world-class innovation, engineering excellence, and a willingness to adapt to the needs of the Philippine market,” shared Santos.
“Foton Motor Philippines, on the other hand, brought deep local understanding, a commitment to service, and an unyielding passion for building trust with our customers, “ he added.
“Together, we didn’t just sell vehicles; we built opportunities. We empowered countless Filipino businesses to grow, enabled industries to thrive, and provided mobility solutions that truly made a difference,” Santos concluded.
FMPI won a third award for Excellence in Service in the Individual Awards category, with after-sales veteran Lito Landicho, FMPI’s VP for Aftersales, going up the stage to accept the award, which exemplifies the company’s dedication to delivering excellent product value to its customers.
The Philippines, the first export market for Beijing-based Foton Motor, has been the consistent top selling distributor in Foton’s global operations. Foton Motor Philippines was the recipient of the most number of awards during last week’s conference and awards night.
Members of the Philippine motoring media flew with FMPI officials to witness the awards ceremony as well as to join the inauguration and product rollout of Foton’s new manufacturing plant in Thailand, located less than an hour’s drive from Suvarnabhumi airport.
The inauguration was highlighted by a ribbon-cutting by Foton executives from China and Thailand as well as local government officials led by Thailand’s Minister of Industry as well as the head of Thailand’s Office of the Board of Investment, both of whom also delivered speeches.
Closing the program was the rollout of Foton’s 1,000,000th export unit—the humongous Foton EST400AMT heavy truck—as well as the appearance of the fully electric Foton e-Auman heavy truck, both in right-hand drive configurations.
The Thai plant opening is part of Foton International’s strategic global plans to strengthen the brand’s presence in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region, particularly in the right-hand drive markets of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, to which the newly opened plant will eventually export its products. Initially, production will be for the domestic consumption of Thailand.
With Foton executives from China and the rest of the Asia Pacific markets as well as media and corporate customers from the region and local government officials all in attendance, Foton International took the opportunity to present its global plans as well as its future technology-heavy products.
Foton International officials presented their 20-year Internationalization Strategy, their New Energy Vehicles (NEV) Product Planning Strategy, and their AP Marketing Strategy, before unveiling three fully electric new models: the eMiler compact commercial vehicle, the eTunland full-size pickup, and the eAuman heavy truck.
Highly impressive was the company’s intensive research in New Energy Vehicles, with full-electric, hydrogen, and fuel cell commercial vehicles already in production or advanced testing stages in Foton’s various testing centers worldwide.
The following day, we got to test various Foton commercial vehicles at an improvised test track. The vehicles ranged from the diminutive e-Truck Mate dropside pickup to the full-size e-Toano van to the gigantic e-Auman heavy truck. We did acceleration, braking, and cornering exercises along the cone-laden track. The commercial EVs performed flawlessly under the hot sun.
Foton was the first Chinese automaker to break into the Top 10 in Philippine total vehicle sales, way before the influx of the more than a dozen Chinese auto brands since just before the pandemic. Foton is now the third-ranked car brand in commercial vehicle sales in the country.
And judging from the company’s upcoming new products and plans that we saw in Thailand, we can expect bigger and better things to come from this brand in the near future.
