By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

HONDA Cars Philippines, Inc. is targeting a 3%-5% growth in sales this year amid new product launches and new dealerships, its president said.

“For 2025, maybe around 3%-5% growth in sales,” Honda Cars President Rie Miyake told reporters on the sidelines of a press event late Monday.

“It’s already over 15,000 for 2024, so basically for 2025, we are aiming to align with the market growth. So, definitely, we are going to exceed the result in 2024 this year,” she added.

In 2024, Honda Cars sold 15,518 units, representing 3.32% of the total industry sales.

This reflects a 6.8% decline from the 16,645 units the company sold in the previous year.

“Our practical and stylish seven-seater, the BR-V, has maintained its status as the best-selling model with over 5,000 units sold,” she said.

The BR-V was followed by the Civic, which had over 3,000 sales, and the CR-V, which had around 1,800 sales.

For 2025, she said that the growth will be driven by the new models and the new dealership stores that the company will be rolling out this year.

“We already introduced the HR-V hybrid model today. For the succeeding years, our direction is to expand the hybrid models. Today, I cannot mention any specific models or timing, but our direction is always to shift to hybrid,” she said.

“Considering the current market situation, we think that the hybrid model is the best solution for Filipino customers to contribute to carbon neutrality. So our direction is to bring in more hybrid models,” she added.

On Monday, Honda Cars unveiled its third hybrid model in the Philippines, the HR-V e:HEV. This will be the third hybrid model that the company is launching in the Philippines.

“You have helped us deliver almost 1,200 units of the CR-V e:HEV, showing our customers’ acceptance of our hybrid products,” said Ms. Miyake.

“We initially launched that in September 2023, and since then we have sold almost 1,200 units. In the last two years, the market for hybrids has rapidly grown,” she added.

Meanwhile, she said that the company is adding four new dealerships this year, which will bring the company’s store portfolio to 42.

“We will continue to expand our dealer network, bringing Honda products closer to customers all over the country,” she said.

“In 2025, we plan to inaugurate four new dealerships, namely Honda Cars Talisay, Honda Cars Manila Bay, Honda Cars Tacloban, and Honda Cars Parañaque.”

Asked about how the proposed merger between Honda and Nissan will affect the company’s local operations, she said, “This news sounds like it’s already decided, but actually it’s just the start of the discussion.”

“Nothing specific yet is decided. But if it happens, maybe the impact of the merger on the Philippine market is supposed to be very positive,” she said.

“Because if it happens, the objective is how we can maximize the capability of the development of battery EVs (electric vehicles) or software-defined vehicles. So the impact must be positive, but nothing is decided yet,” she added.