Thanksgiving
At its traditional Christmas lunch with selected media friends yesterday, Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP) celebrated the milestones of 2024 and shared its bullish expectations for 2025.
TMP chairman Alfred V. Ty and TMP president Masando Hashimoto together with other top executives were on hand to greet media guests and thank them for their support throughout the year.
“It has been an exciting year filled with lots of reasons for us to look forward to an even brighter 2025 with you, motorists and the whole Filipino nation,” Ty said in his welcome remarks.
He revealed that it is highly likely that the market will end with sales of around 470,000 units in 2024, nearly breaking the record of 473,000 units set in 2017. This shows that the resumption of motorization in the country is strong and is expected to grow even stronger as the Philippines transitions to a middle-income economy in 2025 or 2026, he averred.
Of the 470,000 total vehicle sales projected this year, some 215,000 to 218,000 units are expected to be Toyotas, per TMP forecasts. “This growth inspires us because it represents an opportunity to further enhance our local production and sales distribution operations that, in turn, will allow us to create more jobs and contribute further to government revenues,” Ty pointed out.
The Next-Generation Tamaraw, unveiled to the public last Friday at eight grand simultaneous launches in eight malls nationwide, will play a key role in TMP’s mission of creating mobility for all Filipinos by enabling businesses, supporting livelihoods, and delivering services to improve their quality of life, Ty said. “Our hope for the Tamaraw is to help Filipinos realize their dreams.”
The production of the Tamaraw in three body styles at Toyota’s sprawling plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna represents one step forward to elevate local automotive parts manufacturing . TMP aims to produce from 1,500 to 1,800 units a month and sell 20,000 units a year, with 25 percent local content. Toyota invested P5.5 billion to build the Tamaraw production logistics. There is a possibility that the new Tamaraw will be enrolled in the government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program in which the Vios is already enrolled.
TMP president Hashimoto, in his thanksgiving speech, communicated the importance of continuing the practice of “genba,” learning from the source itself to truly understand what is needed. In his first year at TMP, he took it upon himself to perform genba throughout the company’s many activities, such as the Beyond Zero philosophy TMP championed at the Philippine International Motor Show last October, and the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup in which he participated in the Novice Class.
In line with the theme of genba and events, Hashimoto said, TMP’s main focus next year will be on the Tamaraw, electrification, and motorsports expansion.
Premises considered, it is evident that TMP is continuing forward in its “drive to move lives, create happiness, bring mobility to all, and help build a nation.” In the Next-Generation Tamaraw’s own mantra: ABANTE, POSIBLE.
