Despite their being pricey and sometimes flashy, the strong value proposition of most of the sports utility vehicles (SUVs) has made them more attractive to buyers as total SUV sales surged to 19,979 units in the first quarter this year almost doubling the 10,226 units sold in the same period last year.

SUV sales now account for 24.3 percent of the 82,147 units total industry sales in the first quarter.
Froilan Dytianquin, vice president for marketing of Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. told Business Bulletin the trend in buyers preference for SUV is going to be sustainable.

“Buyers used to buy AUVs, but now it’s SUVs. I believe buyers are upgrading to multipurpose vehicles to SUVs, which have better value proposition than passenger cars,” said Dytianquin.

Among the SUV players in the market, Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. (MMPC) lorded it over other players with 31 percent market share for total sales of 6,206 units in the first quarter followed by Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. with 4,196 units for 21 percent and third, Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) with 3,506 units sold for 17.5 percent market share.

A closer look into the SUV figure would reveal the compact and mid-sized segment grew by 93 percent in the first half this with total sales of 18,667 versus 9,677 units last year.

There are 8 to 9 auto players in this segment. MMPC’s Montero Sport emerged as the best selling with 33 percent (6,177 units), which is up by 82 percent followed by TMPC’s combined Rav 4 and Fortuner with 20.7 percent. HARI’s Tucson and Sta. Fe models come close with 18.8 percent market share.

The full-sized SUV segment, which has 6 players, sold a total of 705 units up by 71 percent versus 404 units in the first semester last year.
In this segment, TMPC ranked first with 40.2 percent (Land Cruiser, Prado, Lexus); Universal Nissan Corp. (Patrol) with 20.8 percent; Ford (Expedition and Explorer) with 14.3 percent; and BMW (X6 and X5) with 10.2 percent.
In terms of overall market performance, SUVs are faring well than most major vehicle categories having accounted for almost a quarter already 24.3 percent (19,979 units) of the total industry sales in the first half of the year.
Comparatively, sales of AUVs and Multi-Purpose Vehicles (MPVs) reached only 15,823 units in the first semester or a contribution of 19.2 percent; the pick-up trucks account for 13.8 percent (7,300 units); and passenger vans, 11.9 percent (6,099). The trucks and buses category only sold a total of 909 units or 1 percent of total industry sales.
The passenger car segment sold 19,596 units or 34.3 percent of the total industry sales but the ones really contributing in this major vehicle category are the subcompact, hatchbacks and cars with engine displacements of 1.1 c.c to 1.5 c.c., which account for 69.5 percent of total passenger car sales.
According to Dytianquin, the popularity of SUVs is due to several factors. Foremost, SUVs are mostly diesel-powered making them fuel efficient.