Volkswagen Philippines Inc. plans to bring in premium Volkswagen models to the Philippines this year amid a rising clamor from a special market niche in the country.
“The demand, clearly, is coming from a select group, mostly car aficionados since these are special cars. We’re still evaluating which of the current lineup we have the highest demand. From there, we’ll know what models to bring in for the R-Line,” company president John Philip Orbeta said at the sidelines the Volkswagen Jetta launching over the weekend.
He said Volkswagen prices were higher than those of a base model unit.
“It can go as high as 50 percent of a base model’s price. For instance, we brought in the Golf model. There are several variants of this but the most expensive, the most high-end is the Golf R. That’s the top of the line for the model,” Orbeta said.
The price depends on where the cars are sourced. Volskwagen has several plants in Germany, India, Mexico, the US and China.
Although China production is dedicated to serve domestic demand, the Philippine company is hoping China will soon open its market for net importers.
The recent global fiasco on rigging car computers to improve emission performance prompted the local Volkswagen unit to secure supply from other, more reliable Volkswagen plants.
“Because of what’s been happening globally, there might be opportunities for us to source from other countries. But only if they have excess production,” said Orbeta.
Volkswagen Philippines said 2015 was a challenging year for the company due to the emission issue that caused a temporary blip in sales. Sales of the company recovered after reports showed the Philippines was not affected.
Volkwagen expects sales to increase by as much as 40 percent this year from 602 units in 2015, with Golf and Jetta driving the growth for the year.
Another volume model is the Tiguan, a compact SUV model that is fast gaining popularity.
The company in 2016 will establish four sales points in the Visayas-Mindanao region, Northern, Central and Southern Luzon.
“We”re evaluating since many have expressed interest to sell our brand. But we are proposing that would-be dealers should try first the sales point strategy before going for a full dealership agreement with us. I’d rather that they have a working capital to re-sell and a service station first to test market in their area,” said Orbeta.
The company is looking at Pampanga or Cabanatuan in the north, Batangas or Laguna in the south, Bacolod or Iloilo in Visayas and Davao for Mindanao.
The company has four existing sales points—Quezon Avenue, Pioneer-Edsa, the flagship showroom in Bonifacio Global City and one in Cebu.