KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's new vehicle sales or total industry volume (TIV) eased 3.9 per cent or 20,603 units to 508,911 in 2021 from 529,514 registered in 2020.
Of this, passenger vehicles (PV) accounted for 452,663 units and commercial vehicles (CV) comprised 56,248 units, according to the latest data by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA).
The MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said the TIV fell for the second consecutive year. However, the 3.9 per cent contraction was much smaller than the 12.4 per cent contraction recorded in 2020.
"The contraction can be attributed to the measures and wisdom of our government in balancing between saving lives and jobs so as not to jeopardise the domestic economy," Aishah said in a virtual press conference today.
Nonetheless, she said it was still commendable given the tremendous challenges faced by the industry.
"In fact, it was slightly higher than the MAA forecast of 500,000 units, which we announced on July 22 last year," she added.
For December, the MAA said the TIV dropped 5.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 65,184 units, from 68,854 units recorded in the same period in 2020.
Majority of the sales volume were contributed by PV at 57,603 units, with CV accounting for 7,581 units sold in December 2021.
Aishah said December was the highest monthly sales recorded in 2021.
"Companies ramped up deliveries of vehicles to fulfil backlog orders especially for companies
with financial year ending December 2021."
She said companies' year-end promotional campaigns had also boosted sales for December.
Meanwhile, production of new vehicles slipped 3.0 per cent YoY to 54,166 units in December from 55,860 units produced in December 2020.
Total production of PV stood at 49,901 units, while CV made up 4,265 units during the month.
For 2021, the total production of new vehicles eased 0.7 per cent to 481,651 units from 485,186 units produced in 2020.
The MAA expects sales for January this year to be slightly lower than December 2021.
This is attributable to shortage of chips which will affect certain makes, as well assupply disruption caused by floods in certain parts of Klang Valley and states in the east coast.
However, sales may be driven by the Chinese New Year promotional campaigns.