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May 27, 2025

New Car Sales Dropped Last April 2025, First Time In Three Years


New car sales stalled last April, sliding 10 percent year-on-year. It’s the biggest annual decline in more than three years, dragged down by a double-digit decline in passenger car (PC) sales.

Based on the latest joint report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA), new vehicle sales dropped to 33,580 units in April 2025. This is compared to 37,314 units in April 2024.

April saw the biggest annual decline since the 11.2 percent drop in January 2022. It was also the first time that sales fell since the 7.3 percent decline in February 2022.

Month on month, car sales also slumped by 16.7 percent from 40,306 units sold in March.

CAMPI attributes the slowdown to “seasonal factors, economic conditions, or evolving consumer demands.” These could include fewer selling days last April due to the Holy Week as well as the tightening or restriction of consumer loans.

Another probable reason is the rise of Chinese New Energy Vehicle manufacturer BYD. Since BYD is not a CAMPI member, it doesn’t report its monthly sales figures. However, the company recently celebrated the milestone of its 10,000th vehicle sold—a feat it’s managed in a little over a year of operations in the country.

Anyhow, Toyota has still managed to eat market share among CAMPI-TMA members. Alone, the Japanese auto giant accounted for 48.88 percent of all new vehicles sold last April (16,414). They’re followed by Mitsubishi with 19.02 percent (6,388) and Suzuki in third (1,561).

This is how everyone ranked last month:
  1. Toyota – 16,414 (48.88%)
  2. Mitsubishi – 6,388 (19.02%)
  3. Suzuki – 1,561 (4.65%)
  4. Ford – 1,509 (4.49%)
  5. Nissan – 1,460 (4.35%)
  6. Honda – 1,273 ( 3.79%)
  7. Isuzu – 1,224 (3.65%)
  8. Hyundai – 833 (2.48%)
  9. Kia – 701 (2.09%)
  10. MG – 660 (1.97%)
  11. Foton – 234 (0.70%)
  12. GAC Motor – 202 (0.60%)
  13. Tesla – 185 0.55%)
  14. Hino – 176 (0.52%)
  15. Mazda – 119 (0.35%)
  16. Jetour – 105 (0.31%)
  17. Fuso – 104 (0.31%)
  18. Changan – 100 ( 0.30%)
  19. Chery – 100 (0.30%)
  20. JMC – 88 (0.26%)
  21. BMW – 78 (0.23%)
  22. Mercedes-Benz – 32 (0.10%)
  23. Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM – 12 (0.04%)
  24. Jaguar / Land Rover – 12 (0.04%)
  25. Volkswagen – 9 (0.03%)
  26. Peugeot – 1 (0.00%)
Most automotive brands saw double-digit percentage declines last April with brands like Jaguar Land Rover (-60 percent), Mercedes-Benz (-45 percent), and even Nissan (-36 percent) getting hit the most. Shockingly, Peugeot only managed to sell just one brand-new car which was a -75 percent month-on-month decline. Even brands such as Toyota weren’t immune as it saw sales drop -13 percent.

The two bright spots in the industry which saw month-on-month increases were BMW (+20 percent) and Dodge Jeep Ram (+9 percent).

The CAMPI-TMA report showed that 1,509 electrified vehicles were sold in April, bringing four-month sales to 6,820 units or a 5.69 percent market share. However, month-on-month EV sales dropped 20.4 percent from 1,895 units sold in March.

Broken down, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) accounted for 5,744 units sold in the first four months. There were 978 battery EVs and 98 plug-in hybrid EVs sold as of end-April.

Toyota Motor sold the most hybrid EVs so far this year with 4,942, followed by Honda Cars Philippines with 442.

Meanwhile, Nissan Philippines posted the highest sales of battery EVs with 409 thanks to the Kicks e-Power, followed by Tesla Motors Philippines with 396 units.

Passenger car (PC) sales, which accounts for 19.35 percent of all new vehicles sold, plunged 35.5 percent in April to 6,498 units. This is compared to 10,069 units a year ago. It’s also a 23.1 percent decline month-on-month compared to March 2025.

The Top 10 best-selling passenger car brands last April were:
  1. Toyota – 3,244 (49.92%)
  2. Mitsubishi – 1,392 (21.42%)
  3. Suzuki – 657 (10.11%)
  4. Honda – 494 (7.6%)
  5. MG – 354 (5.45%)
  6. Nissan – 114 (1.75%)
  7. BMW – 78 (1.2%)
  8. Mazda – 34 (0.52%)
  9. Mercedes-Benz – 29 (0.45%)
  10. Kia – 20 (0.31%)
On the other hand, commercial vehicle (CV) sales, which accounted for 80.65 percent of new vehicles sold, remained flat, dipping by just 0.6 percent to 27,082 in April from 27,245 a year ago. It is, however, a 15 percent decline compared to March 2025 figures.

Broken down, light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales rose by 3.2 percent year-on-year to 20,185, while Asian utility vehicle (AUV) sales declined by 12.1 percent to 5,992. Meanwhile, sales of light-duty trucks and buses inched up by 1.6 percent to 499 in April, while sales of medium-duty trucks and buses dropped 18 percent to 291. Sales of heavy-duty trucks and buses surged 134.7 percent to 115 units.

The Top 10 best-selling commercial vehicle brands last April were:
  1. Toyota – 13,170 (48.63%)
  2. Mitsubishi – 4,996 (18.45%)
  3. Ford – 1,491 (5.51%)
  4. Nissan – 1,346 (4.97%)
  5. Isuzu – 1,224 (4.52%)
  6. Suzuki – 904 (3.34%)
  7. Hyundai – 830 (3.06%)
  8. Honda – 779 (2.88%)
  9. Kia – 681 (2.51%)
  10. MG – 306 (1.13%)
For the first four months of the year, vehicle sales are up slightly—2.5 percent—year-on-year to 150,654 units from 146,920 in the same period in 2024. Commercial vehicle sales increased by 10.3 percent to 119,824, while passenger car sales dropped by 19.5 percent to 30,830 in the January-to-April period.

Toyota remained the undisputed leader with 71,927 units sold (47.74 percent market share) followed by Mitsubishi with 29,770 (19.76 percent), Nissan with 8,182 (5.43 percent), Suzuki with 7,002 (4.65 percent), and Ford with 6,728 (4.47 percent).

Year-to-date performance, Kia is the best performing brand with January to April 2025 sales up +93 percent as are Changan (+57 percent), JMC (+36 percent), Fuso (+35 percent), Suzuki (+14 percent), and MG (+25 percent). Biggest decliners, not including boutique or niche brands are: Peugeot (-67 percent), Ford (-31 percent), BMW (-19 percent), Chery (-66 percent), and Mazda (-40 percent).
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20 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 8:26 AM

    Hopefully, Toyota gets less and less market share in the coming years. They are too cheap with the specs of their offerings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM

      Nah, most pinoy car buyers prefer proven reliability, durability, after sales support than fancy fancy hype hype headaches later.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 8:57 AM

      All chinese brand sales down, probably eaten by BYD.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 11:29 AM

      wait till BYD reported its data

      Delete
    4. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM

      Sealion 6 is becoming a common sight on the roads. I think they are slowly convincing the market to convert to electrification.

      Delete
    5. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 1:24 PM

      Anecdotal but I gather fewer and fewer Toyota models have waiting lists, which is good news for buyers.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 9:25 AM

    what will happen to peugeot? is astara still the distributor or will there be a successor?

    sticking to the 2008, 3008, 5008 and traveller product lineup isn't working

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 1:10 PM

      There's a possibility that Stellantis will directly handle the local distribution and sales of Peugeot vehicles in the Philippine market in the near future
      Astara stopped importing brand new Peugeot vehicles since last year and they mostly sell 2023 and 2024 Peugeot vehicles made in Malaysia

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM

      Same could be asked of VW. They could be run by just two people and still be unprofitable.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 11:11 AM

    The economy is down. I work at real estate and talked to my peers all of us experiencing a down trend. Byd as a factor I think very minimal. They are not 11% of the market decline. I this article says "probable" byd is the cause. It can also be this site is "probably" a paid Chinese stooge. Don't mention if it is not a fact

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RGMay 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM

      Nobody wants to buy real estate because of massive oversupply and no one wants to pay rent more than it used to. Its a buyers’ market in the next at least 2 years so good luck!

      Its interesting to see that chinese brands never reached double digit market share.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 28, 2025 at 12:12 AM

      Massive oversupply of condo because of massive overpricing.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousMay 28, 2025 at 10:41 AM

      Not only condo.... even empty lots are massively overpricing.... look at all the development in cavite, laguna, batangas, pampanga, bulacan, tarlac, etc. Speculative buying. Hoping for quick buck by quick turnaround sell.

      Delete
    4. AnonymousMay 29, 2025 at 10:25 AM

      In summary, real estate bubble.... when will it burst? or will it softly fizzle out?

      Delete
  4. AnonymousMay 27, 2025 at 12:19 PM

    Sales numbers show that after a decade china car brands here failed to prove their worth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM

    Sales of Chery dropped due to most of its dealerships are turned into BAIC vehicle dealerships.
    Chery is still in the Philippine market and they plan to open more dealerships and they now sell affordable value for money SUVs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 29, 2025 at 4:23 PM

    Why isn't Lexus and BYD included?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ulysses AngMay 29, 2025 at 4:24 PM

      Lexus sales are combined with Toyota.

      BYD doesn't report its sales because they're not members of CAMPI-TMA.

      Delete
  7. AnonymousMay 30, 2025 at 11:50 AM

    In general, the economy has not been doing well except mostly for the crony corporations

    ReplyDelete

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