Malaysians Snap Up LVs in Record Numbers in 2013

Malaysian new-vehicle sales rose 4.5% last year to a record 655,793 units, up from the old mark of 627,753 units set in 2012.

The result surpassed the Malaysian Automotive Assn.’s prediction of 640,000 deliveries for 2013 and was the fourth consecutive year above 600,000.

The year ended with December sales of 60,493 units – 52,490 cars and 8,003 commercial vehicles – virtually unchanged from 60,470 prior-year.

“It was the second highest-monthly (total industry volume) for 2013 and second time the (monthly) sales volume exceeded the 60,000-unit mark,” MAA says in a statement.

It credits the strong December result to aggressive promotional campaigns by automakers whose financial year ended Dec. 31, festive-season marketing and favorable market conditions.

Driven Communications analyst Paul Tan reports Malaysian automaker Perodua led the 2013 car market with sales rising 3.7% to 196,1072 units, ahead of Proton, up 9.8% to 138,409.

Association data shows full-year production climbed 5.6% to 601,407 units, with car output increasing 6.7% to 543,892, more than offsetting a 4.2% fall in the CV build to 57,515.

The industry group predicts this month’s sales will remain at the December level as aggressive promotions continue and demand jumps in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration.

Volkswagen Greater China/ASEAN Commercial Operations President Soh Weiming says VW aims to double its sales in Malaysia to 23,000 units in 2014 as it boosts production with partner DRB-Hicom.

The DRB-Hicom plant in Pekan, Pahang, which began building the Passat in early 2012 and the Polo last October, will roll out the Jetta in first-half this year.

Soh tells the government news agency Bernama 70% of the cars to be sold this year are expected to be locally produced.

BMW Malaysia says its sales climbed 14% last year to a record 7,974 units as it boosted its dealerships to 31 from 26.

CEO Gerhard Pils tells the Business Times the German automaker fulfilled its promise to produce as many models in the country as possible with the introduction of locally assembled variants of the BMW 1 Series, BMW X3 and Mini Countryman.

Ford distributor Sime Darby Auto ConneXion also is eyeing records, with Managing Director Lee Eu San saying he expects the blue oval to have its best-ever Malaysian result in 2014, driven by demand for the new Ranger and Fiesta.

“There will be significant growth for the company,” he tells Business Times. “We are expanding our network points from 44 to 50.”

Tan’s data shows Ford sold 4,899 units last year, little changed from 4,930 in 2012, but CV deliveries soared 164.5% to 5,761 from 2,178 prior-year.