Lexus PH leads luxury car sales in May and June

MANILA: As with other companies, Lexus Philippines continues to slog it out during the year of the pandemic and the lockdown/quarantine that comes with it.

For the months of May and June, Lexus Manila (tasked with dealership operations) President Raymond Rodriguez reported to ZIGWHEELS PH that the company sold 30 and 69 units, respectively, to lead the luxury car segment. This remains no small feat for a brand that has maintained a solitary dealership (on 8^th Avenue and 34^th Street in Bonifacio Global City) since it opened shop in 2009. In the first half of 2020, the Japan-headquartered premium carmaker sold a total of 197 units — good for third place among premium marques here.

“The bestsellers for us are our RX and NX models,” Rodriguez revealed. “However, in terms of numbers, the LM350 sold the most units at 70 — (accounting for) 35% of total sales in March. For sedans, it’s the ES350 with 18 units or nine percent of total.”

Year to date, Lexus sales by category are as follows: SUVs (48%), vans (35%), and sedans (17%). “In January, we had little stock available since we sold well in December,” continued the executive, who explained that the lockdown months in the first and second quarter proved challenging.

Despite the resumption of business and the healthy numbers thus far, Rodriguez remains cautious. “July may not be as good as June, as the strong sales in June mainly served the pending reservations of previous months.”

He admitted, “We would always want to be optimistic, but there is so much uncertainty. We’re unsure about recovery since we had two months of no sales. Also, we are now at negative growth year on year. The most important thing is to narrow the gap. As of June, our growth is at -27%. The industry, if I’m not mistaken, is at around -50%, so we’re not doing that bad.”

Rodriguez said that business-wise, much hinges on government quarantine level or controls. “By August, we should be able to tell. Quarantine controls directly impact not only new car sales but also our aftersales.”

Photos from Lexus

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