Our automotive market is owned by Toyota. Depending on the charts that you consult, the Japanese brand proudly dominates our territory to the tune of 45% or 48%. That means for every five new vehicles sold in our country, one is a Toyota. If that’s not supremacy, I don’t know what is.
I’m sure that’s a happy paragraph to read if you’re an employee of Toyota Motor Philippines, which, by the way, celebrated its 35th anniversary last night. The festivity continues with the “Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival” today and tomorrow, with no less than Toyota Motor Corporation chairman Akio Toyoda (aka Morizo) showing off his driving skills on the first day. If you’re a fan of the automaker, I encourage you to join the fun at Quirino Grandstand—admission is free.
Recently, during the launch of the Yaris Cross, TMP president Atsuhiro Okamoto told me that his company’s sales target for the year is 200,000 units. Honestly, I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. So much so that I asked him the same question just to make sure. Remember that the whole industry is still fresh from a debilitating global pandemic, and the all-time sales record of TMP is 182,657 (sans Lexus cars)—set in 2017.
Before writing this, I had to ask another source, GT Capital Auto and Mobility Holdings chairman Vince S. Socco, who, to all intents and purposes, knows all things about the Toyota business.
“The projected sales total of TMP has increased from the original outlook of 188,000 at the start of the year to 195,000, with an upside of up to 200,000 depending on GDP and other macroeconomic factors,” Socco confirmed.
Last year, TMP moved 173,245 vehicles. For the first seven months of this year, the firm has only sold 93,705 cars. Can the company really improve upon that tally by more than 26,000 units? I may have my doubts, but who am I to suspect Toyota’s ability to reach its goal? To do that would be like refusing to trust Novak Djokovic in the fifth set of a grand slam, with a much younger opponent up by two points.
Speaking of opponents, the Toyota group is one that doesn’t back down from a challenge. Last month marked my 28th year covering the car industry. In all these years, I can only remember two times when a foe got the better of Toyota. First was in 1996, when Honda beat it in passenger-car sales with its Accord/Civic/City trio. Second was in 1998, when Mitsubishi sold more vehicles (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) than Toyota, 19,280 versus 17,046. Ask anyone from TMP and you will be told that this was one of the darkest times in its 35-year history.
“Then the Asian Financial Crisis happened,” Socco reminisced. “That was the most humbling of all because it crushed the industry, and I had to see people go. I spent many hours and days in tears.”
Maybe these incidents during the late 1990s were responsible for TMP’s determination and tenacity right now. Maybe those incidents pushed the company to work harder and be better. So much better that no competitor can even dare to touch it today.
The Chinese brands are now lurking. Toyota is ready. Bring it on.
FILL YOUR TANK: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)