KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's new vehicle sales plunged 88 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 7,086 units in July from 58,878 units recorded in the same period a year ago.
The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) said the bulk of the sales volume was contributed by passenger vehicles (PV) at 4,949 units, while commercial vehicles (CV) accounted for 2,137 units.
Its president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said the sales were mainly driven from Sabah and Sarawak where showrooms were allowed to operate under Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan.
"However, very minimal sales were recorded via online registration during the period," Aishah said in a statement today.
Year to date, registration for new car sales increased 10.2 per cent to 256,215 units from 232,423 units in the same period last year.
Of the total sales, PV accounted for 228,787 units and CV comprised 27,428 units sold in the first seven months of 2021.
Meanwhile, production of new vehicles plummeted 94.2 per cent to 2,775 units from 47,630 units in July 2020.
Total production of PV stood at 2,396 units and CV made up 379 units during the period.
Year-to-date, total production of new vehicles increased 14.2 per cent to 244,063 units from 213,680 units produced in the same period previously.
MAA expects sales for August 2021 to be higher than July level as showrooms were allowed to be open in many states.
This includes in key states like Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, which began to allow operations today, subject to fulfilling standard operating procedure conditions and based on company employees' vaccination rate.