AC Motors, the official distributor of Volkswagen vehicles in the Philippines is cautioning owners from purchasing its electric vehicle (EV) line-up from unofficial channels.
In a Facebook post (see below), Volkswagen Philippines says they’re aware of Volkswagen EVs, particularly the ID.4 and ID.6 being imported and sold through unofficial channels (gray market importers). And while they’re manufactured with the highest quality consistent with the German auto brand, these Volkswagen EVs haven’t been properly homologated for official release locally.
Suffice to say, Volkswagen Philippines cautions individuals from purchasing these EVs since their suitability in terms of build quality and software is not guaranteed. Furthermore, they do not come with any international warranty, and that aftersales service cannot be undertaken by Volkswagen Philippines or any of its authorized dealerships.
With enterprising individuals and businesses resorting to bringing in the Volkswagen EV line-up, it’s fair to say that there’s a local demand for them. As an official distributor, AC Motors has to quickly serve this market else they fall behind. It could also help re-prop up the Volkswagen brand.
Timely for VW Ph to bring in EVs bec of the 0% tariff for 5 years :)
ReplyDeleteNot timely. Their sister company KIA (under AC motors) have already announced the EV6, what's holding them back? VW OEM telling them they're not able to serve the Philippines? With Ayala malls and properties they can push VW HQ to allocate units by saying that they'll have a charging network in place and scale up over the years fast enough - so allocate them even just 10 units. VW SAIC produces ID.3, ID.4 and ID.6.
DeleteThey're just saying don't buy the gray imports. They're not even saying they'll bring in the VW EVs sometime this year or early next year. What a failure of a distributor.
So the question now why VW Germany/SAIC allowed it for PH and seems the Gray Importer is attracting more inquiries on the ID Series - let's be honest here VW PH line-up suck big and while T-Cross is OK but when they launched it here I think they're very late on the very crowded Subcompact SUV in the Market hence they did not catch-up like Coolray and ZS
DeleteI understand on why they choose and all Chinese source model but what I don't understand is why they can't introduced a more models, just browsing VW China website and all their line-up is pretty good - they can source both in SAIC-VW and FAW-VW so customer here do have more options
Like was already mentioned on the comment, VW PH is just threated on this incident hence they'll issue this kind of advisory because it is a big slap on their face that the Gray Importer are getting more inquiries than the official VW Distributor in PH
It's VW Philippines fault for falling behind and not properly planning their product lineup. The only SUV they have in their lineup is the T-cross. No Tiguan (VW's best selling model in the world), no Touareg, no Taos, no T-roc, no Atlas/Teramont. (these are also produced by SAIC in china so they can compete price wise but they did not bring the SUV's in when customer preference in the Philippines is now SUV's / crossovers the past 8-10 years.
ReplyDeleteThen they have a Kombi in the line up which honestly is not even a halo product or a volume mover. Their sedan lineup is abysmal - choosing to focus on the cheap ones.
Then with EV's - they're cautioning people now that there are gray market imports. The writing was on the wall with EVIDA being talked about since 2020 and passed last year.
They've been saying they'll introduce new models since 2019. We've only gotten the T-cross and Kombi in the past 4 years. What a joke.
The Tiguan which AC motors only discontinued selling last 2021, was the old generation 1st Generation (2009-2016). Why would anyone buy that?!? The current gen (2nd gen) was already available since 2017 but they did not offer it when Ayala took over. So what if the Taos is at Php1.5M-Php1.8M, other compact SUV's are in that price range??
DeleteAC motors just decided that T-cross is the only suv they'll offer in their line up since 2021. How mind boggling is that.
Live or die with the the t-cross and their 3 crappy sedans and 1 van line-up.
I hope Volkswagen Philippines will change it's distributorship in timing with their 10th anniversary here in our country. To be honest, the China-made models of VW actually failed here in our country compared to MG and Geely which is very successful in sales and competing properly against their Japanese and Korean rivals.
ReplyDeleteAno pinagsasabi mo about PGA cars kuchikuchiku? Are you okay?
DeleteIf the Ayala group can bring in the KIA EV6, they can bring in Volkswagen ID models too.
ReplyDeleteI think VW Phils should change the bosses which means reinvent themselves. They have the brand yet Chinese brands are doing much better. Someone seems not to know the business.
ReplyDeleteWhat are they doing sitting on their fat asses? Are they in the right business? What were those pronouncements last year then? Smoke? It's so silly they are exposing their incompetence in that post. No VW EVs have been touched to prepare for local conditions? Are you kidding me?
ReplyDeleteBut king kuchi vanished888 liked very much the dated/old, unreliable VW&MAXUS cars that ACmotors brought here. Maybe they also liked very much the feedback they got from king kuchi vanished888
ReplyDeleteYung VW Quezon Ave nga nagulat ako sarado na pala last year.
ReplyDeleteVW Phils seems confused with their market they can be considered as a premium brand here in the country then the sudden shift sa china-made units really hurt the brand as a whole with these big discounts and units lacking the common tech and features now in the market. Wala patay talaga konti pa yung dealerships sayang talaga ang brand they should follow the approach done by the new Peugeot in the country. For me may market for VW pangit lang talaga current lineup models nila. Isama pa natin ang Maxus....haaaaays
ReplyDeleteThis is a slap to the face to customers who only want the best Volkswagens. First they dumped all the Dieselgate Jettas and Golf Sportwagens (which were US-spec models.), next they sourced outdated China-only models (when even China has more up to date offerings). Now they tell us don't buy the genuine German-made EV Volkswagens since they aren't adapted to our country. What BS.
ReplyDeletepinoy businessman-moves again! do better kaya so there is no need to buy from other sources. daming daldal! gusto kasi nila tanggalin lahat ng magandang features para barebones talaga para sa atin and maximize profit (aka these Volkswagen EVs haven’t been properly homologated for official release locally). who are you kidding?
ReplyDelete