Jaguar-Land Rover In The Philippines Is Now Handled By Coventry Motors Corp.

About 6 months ago, Jaguar-Land Rover closed its business in the Philippines, which was then under the Soong family’s management, in fears of the looming excise tax in 2018. The Soong family also handles Ferrari, Maserati, and Aston Martin in the Philippines.

Coventry Motors Corp., a newly formed company, has forged a new partnership with Jaguar Land Rover Asia Pacific Importers. The launch also became the opportunity for them to preview the good looking Land Rover Range Rover Velar, with sales beginning sometime in 2018, together with the Jaguar F-Pace SUV and E-Pace small SUV.

While there is no dealership yet, the previous distributor did leave the service centers open, and the transition of facilities between the two distributors will be seamless, as there will be no business interruptions during the process.

Robin Colgan, managing director of Jaguar Land Rover Asia Pacific Importers, is fully aware of the Philippines’ impending excise tax, but he isn’t worried that it will kill the premium car market, which will suffer the most from the brunt of the new form of taxes.

From an interview by Entrepreneur Philippines, Robin Colgan said “It is a consideration, but the fact is that overall, (although) the taxes in the Philippines for luxury cars are high… I mean I look after 17 markets across the Asia Pacific region and many markets have high taxes. And even with this recent change, the Philippines won’t necessarily be the highest”.

“So what we’ve learned, is that clearly, it restricts the market somewhat, but it doesn’t mean that the market goes away,” he added. “There’s still an interest and a demand. I think it probably means you have to work a little bit harder. And one of the ways in which you have to work a little bit harder is that there’s no point in coming to a market with a high tax structure as an also-ran. The pressure to really give people a reason to buy, I think, increases. And the way in which you give people a reason to buy is by giving them strong differentiation from everything else that’s on offer.”

Remember that Jaguar and Land Rover is just one company, though are branded and marketed separately most of the time.

CMC is also unfazed by the looming excise tax, which is good if you have both partners willing to work around the upcoming challenge that the car industry will be facing. We’re excited to see how this new partnership will work out.