Toyota PH Eyes Aggressive Number for All-New Corolla Altis Lineup

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) is targeting aggressive sales figures for the all-new Toyota Corolla Altis. During a press conference shortly after the launch, TMP First Vice President for Branding and Product Planning Tini Arevalo revealed that they are targeting around 300 units monthly for this year. For next year, Arevalo mentioned, sales target would be cut down to 200 units per month. Despite the downplayed price tags, only seven percent of the hybrid variant will comprise the target. Meanwhile, Arevalo assured that TMP will continue to sell its main hybrid unit in the Toyota Prius despite the availability of the Altis hybrid variant. The Prius is pegged at more than PHP2 million while the Altis Hybrid variants only costs at around PHP1.5 million. Jovie Roqueza, TMP product planning supervisor, explained to CARMUDI PHILIPPINES the rationale behind the move. He said that since the Prius is imported from Japan, it will only be brought to the Philippines when an order is placed. "Basically, Prius sales are guaranteed sales since we are not stockpiling units here," Roquieza explained. Discontinuing the Prius would be a much bigger problem should the market move into looking at it. "We believe that it's better to have it continued, even in small numbers, than discontinue it and have it reintroduced," he shared. Further, Roquieza noted that since the Prius is the flagship vehicle for Toyota's hybrid lineup, every update will start from it.