Malaysia Light-Vehicle Sales Up 3.3% in First Half

Malaysia’s new-vehicle sales were up 3.3% to 284,461 units at the year’s halfway point.

The Malaysian Automotive Assn. says the half ended with June sales down 12.4% at 50,275 units and predicts the July result will be little changed from June.

Through six months, new-car sales were up 4.6% at 255,748 units, while commercial-vehicle deliveries were off 7.7% at 28,815.

The association says the 6-month production eased 2.9% to 255,318 units with the car build down 1.9% at 236,464 and CV production off 1.1% at 18,854.

Market leader Perodua saw sales rise 2.4% to 99,675 units, followed by Honda (52,527) and Proton (39,393).

Perodua President and CEO Aminar Rashid Salleh says all Perodua models were No.1 in their segments in first-half 2017, with the Axia selling 32,600 units; the Bezza, 28,300; the Myvi, 24,000; and the Alza, 14,700.

“Despite the improvement in sales, we foresee that the tighter lending guideline is still by far our greatest challenge to overcome as most of our customers are first time buyers,” he says in a statement.

Aminar says Perodua remains cautiously optimistic of achieving its sales target of 202,000 units this year, down from 207,100 in 2016.

Perodua manufactured 96,600 vehicles in the first half and expects to finish the year with a build of 197,000 units.

Honda says its BR-V CUV had first-half sales of almost 11,000 units, topping its annual sales target of 10,000 units. The Japanese automaker has raised its full-year sales target for the 7-seater specially developed by Honda R&D Asia Pacific for the Southeast Asian market to 15,000 units.

Mercedes-Benz Malaysia says it is on track for a record year. President and CEO Claus Weidner says the luxury automaker ended the first half with sales of 5,913 units, driven by strong demand for the locally produced E-Class with 1,358 deliveries.