Fortuner and Montero Sport not in 2024 top 10 best-sellers?

2024’s Philippine vehicle sales figures have finally come in and they’ve revealed some interesting insights into the automotive market. Suffice to say, some results were quite expected. Nonetheless, 2024 still managed to reveal a few surprises. We go over some of the more interesting revelations, based on the reports by the country’s top brands.

Vios leads

It should come as no surprise that the number 1 selling car in the Philippines is still the Vios sedan. This locally-made sedan continues to outsell all other models with a commanding lead of 43,636 units sold in 2024. This should be good news for Toyota Motor Philippines, as demand is still strong to continue justifying its assembly in the country and assuring jobs for all those working on its assembly line and affiliated parts.

Hilux is number 2

The Vios may have a commanding lead, but the number 2, 3, and 4 spot are tightly contested. Nonetheless, the Toyota Hilux is still second best-selling car, counting some 26,643 units sold in 2024. In 2024, it dominated popular competitors like the Ford Ranger and Nissan Navara to take the top pickup spot. Unlike the Vios, the Hilux, by contrast, is a completely built-up unit (CBU) imported from Thailand.

Xpander nearly overtakes Mirage

As we mentioned earlier, it’s a tight battle between second, third, and fourth place spots with the Mirage and Xpander also counting 26,000 units sold each. The Hilux only enjoys a 330 unit lead over Number 3 Mitsubishi Mirage (26,313).It’s an even tighter battle among stablemates as the Xpander (26,242) was just 71 units shy of overtaking the Mirage. Perhaps it will fare better in 2025 as demand continues to be high for comfortable car-based 7-seaters like the Xpander.

Lexus is top premium brand

Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus, continues to outsell its more established competitors, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Lexus sold 2,263 units in 2024, running away with the lead when compared to BMW’s 815 units, and Mercedes-Benz’s 737 passenger vehicles.

We unfortunately don’t have a breakdown of the units sold, but perhaps this is owed to Lexus’ broad lineup of SUVs ranging from the diminutive LBX to its larger RX and LX offerings. Let’s not forget they also have a luxury hybrid van in the form of the LM.

7-seater SUVs losing popularity?

Quite surprisingly, two all-stars are missing from this year’s top 10 best-selling cars: the Toyota Fortuner and Mitsubishi Montero Sport. In fact, they were outsold by the much larger Toyota HiAce van, which racked up 15,744 units in 2024. Toyota says 12,408 Fortuners were sold in 2024, but that’s still less than 2024’s 10th best-selling vehicle, the Mitsubishi L300 at 13,939. Mitsubishi, in turn, reports that 10,687 Montero Sport SUVs were sold last year. 

It seems these large 7-seaters aren't swaying buyers as of late. More seem to favor 7-seater MPVs like the Mitsubishi Xpander (26,242), Toyota Innova (17,648) and Avanza (17,489) easily outsold them last year.

However, it must also be noted that these models are quite a few years old now. Rumors are circulating that their replacements are coming soon. Could it be that savvy buyers are waiting for the all-new models?

BYD leads in PHEV and EV sales

Another surprise from 2024 is the rise in popularity of electrified vehicles. Toyota still dominates the hybrid space with the Yaris Cross and Corolla Cross already outselling the closest competitors. This doesn't even include their other hybrids, the Innova Zenix, Corolla, Camry, RAV4, and Alphard further boosting their lead.

However, the once-forgotten plug-in hybrid segment has seen a resurgence this year. Plug-in hybrids, which operate similarly to gasoline-electric hybrids like the Corolla Cross come with an added feature: the ability to manually charge the onboard battery with a power plug, hence the name. This segment was single-handedly propped up by the BYD Sealion 6 DM-i, selling 2,669 units. BYD is also the leader in battery electric vehicles with the Atto 3 selling 1,062 units.

BONUS: 3 FJ Cruisers

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that there were still some units of the discontinued Toyota FJ Cruiser hiding in a warehouse somewhere. Toyota reported that it managed to sell three of these units in 2024. As a reminder, Toyota Motor Philippines officially discontinued this model in 2023. As such, these units are at the very least, a year old when they were sold. Nonetheless, they appear to be very much still in demand.

Where they were hiding, we’ll never know. However, the three individuals (or one person?) that were able to acquire them will have the rare honor of owning possibly the last new FJ Cruisers in the world.