Holiday Season Depresses Malaysian LV Sales in July

The Malaysian auto industry is looking for a sales recovery this month after the July result saw deliveries dive 27.6% to 42,471 units.

New-car sales fell 28.5% to 37,647 units, while the commercial-vehicle segment dropped 20.1% to 4,824.

The Malaysian Automotive Assn. links the lackluster result to fewer selling days as the result of the Hari Raya festive holidays and the end of Hari Raya-related demand in June.

The market’s year-to-date total was down 16.5% at 317,930 units, with car sales off 16.9% at 282,004 units and the CV market down 13.8% at 35,926.

The association says it expects the August result to outpace July’s, citing more selling days in August and new-model launches since the end of last month.

One of them is the ʼ16 Proton Persona, a sedan version of the Proton Iriz that earned a 5-star safety rating from the New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries.

It says the Persona has occupant protection comparable to that of the Iriz, although the rating was given without a crash test “as ASEAN NCAP feels the volume of the car is not yet available to justify the test.”

ASEAN NCAP Chairman Wong Shaw Voon says ASEAN NCAP verified the results by examining crash data from Proton’s development test and comparing it with the Iriz’s crash data. “As such, all of the new Persona variances are awarded five stars,” he says.

ASEAN NCAP Secretary-General Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim says there have been significant improvements in the safety of Malaysian-built cars since the establishment of the testing agency.

Perhaps because of an anticipated market recovery, manufacturers’ production cutbacks in July did not reflect the sales slump.

New-vehicle production slipped 3.9% to 39,097 units with the car build off 7.3% at 34,944 units, while CV output jumped 40.1% to 4,153.

Through seven months of the year, Malaysia’s vehicle production was down 18% from like-2015 at 302,060 units. Car production was down 18.8% at 275,953 units and the CV build off 8.5% at 26,107.