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THE key
to success in the Philippine motoring industry lies in
the consumers’ ability to understand how transportation
affects their lives and the economy, as well.
This, in
a nutshell, is what Raymond Tumao, president and general
manager for marketing and services of Iseway Motors,
believes as he tries to introduce ways for Filipinos to
buy affordable but quality new cars in the future.
Iseway
Motors was awarded the exclusive license to import and
sell Chery automobiles and provide after-sales service
and parts in the Philippines through the listed firm
Serrano Enterprises of Hong Kong. The company was
organized in 2006 by Tumao together with CEO Ricky Lam,
experienced Chery Xian China dealer, and Felix Molina,
Binondo supermarket mogul and restaurateur.
Tumao
said that despite their cultural differences, all three
of them agreed, “The focus of this endeavor is to allow
Filipinos to own a brand-new car that will bring them to
any destination trouble-free, safely and in style. At
the same time, the car will still have a sound resale
value even after more than eight years of ownership.”
Achieving that is not easy. “Buying from the nearest
Asean member-countries is not the answer because most of
them use right-hand-drive vehicles and it is expensive
to reconfigure them to left-hand drive. So, this made
China a haven for materials sourcing that gives value to
our money,” Tumao added.
But it
is not always cost that makes a good car. Tumao said
that it is the metallurgy that makes the difference
among car manufacturers. “The world is now faced with so
much metal trading that pushes the price of the metal.
This affects the market for automobiles, obviously,
because of the amount of metals used in each car.
Quality varies in the type of metals.”
Tumao
explained that there is an average of 15,000 parts in a
full-sized sedan, except for the Fiat/Lancia that boasts
of only 500 parts inside it. “In a car, different
sections need different types of metals. This means that
if you want a car to give you a longer useful life [from
cradle to grave] based on a life-cycle assessment, the
metallurgist can suggest the right blend of metals. This
is the first stage in determining how the car should
arrive at its suggested retail price. This is why I
always answer that our cars are not cheap. It is just
the way it should be priced, which is way below compared
with other cars in their respective categories.”
In the
Philippines, Tumao said he made sure that Chery cars are
based on an advocacy that cars should be priced based on
the contents added, with some profit, and not on the
buying power of the consumer.
“Because
of the demand for an affordable car of which there is a
vacuum in the market, the right time has come to give
Filipinos a product where little profit is added onto
the cost. Chery has cars priced at P300,000 up to
P800,000.”
In
March, Tumao said that the entire group of Chery Iseway
Motors’ Philippine dealers (about 28 dealerships that
were formed in just two months time) shall visit the
actual manufacturing of the Chery cars in the fully
automated automobile-manufacturing plant in Wuhu, China.
Together with some members of the motoring media, the
trip will “let the dealers witness and relate to our
fellow Pinoys how they could benefit from the
technological advancement of China.”
“If we
do not take advantage of this opportunity today, I am
afraid we might be left behind by our neighbors in the
Asean region. I sincerely hope someday, we can build our
own car with the support from the Motor Vehicle Parts
Manufacturers Association of the Philippines once we
come up with our own totally unique and useful design.
It is equally important for us that we work together for
a common cause and not expect much support from the
government, as it already has headaches bigger than us,”
Tumao said. |
