Hyundai PH experiences 8.3% sales drop in August 2018

Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), has reported a slowdown of 8.3% or 22,223 units, which is quite a dip from last year’s 24,233 units sold. Despite this record, the Korean brand described it as a ‘minimal’ drop since it has steadily sustained the growth trajectory for 2018.

On the brighter side, the recently launched Kona has been getting a great amount of attention in the subcompact SUV market. With this, the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) sales has grown remarkably from the same period last year with 10.4%. This record has surpassed the passenger car (PC) segment for the first time.

Speaking of PC, this segment has covered two-thirds of the brand’s total vehicle sales with 13,935 units retailed from January to August of this year. Among Hyundai’s passenger cars, the Accent has remained the brand’s front-runner with 1,172 vehicles sold, followed by Eon and Elantra. However, PC segment sales has dived down from 2,112 units in August last year to 1,448 vehicles sold in the same period in 2018.

It’s safe to say that this slowdown is already expected in the automotive industry. Well, with the continuous global oil price increase, excise tax imposed on vehicles, and the 6.4% inflation rate in the country, it’s a perfect recipe to shake the industry a quite bit.

Regardless of these happenings, Hyundai keeps its hope with positive sentiments from investors on the current administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program. According to the Korean brand, this has a great potential to counteract the negative effects of the Philippine economy in the automotive industry.