KUALA LUMPUR; The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has revised upward its projected total industry volume (TIV) to 630,000 new vehicles in 2022, up 30,000 units from the 600,000 units set earlier this year.
MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said this stemmed from expectation that Malaysia would continue its recovery, after the economy grew five per cent in the first quarter of 2022.
The industry body believes with the government's consistent policy support and various economic stimulus packages, the country's economy will continue to improve during the second half of the year.
"For the automotive industry, despite not having the Pemerkasa Plus plan for car buyers to enjoy sales tax exemption extended beyond June 30, 2022, MAA members are pleased that the authorities have allowed buyers with confirmed booking to register their vehicles by March 31, 2023.
"This measure is indeed a positive one as it will help the automotive industry to full fill backlogged orders while at the same time allowing the Rakyat to enjoy lower price cars," Aishah said at a briefing on industry performance in the first six months of the year today.
Of the total revised sales volume, this year, passenger vehicles are expected to contribute 567,000 units, while commercial vehicles are 63,000 units.
The new TIV target of 630,000 units is higher than the 508,911 units registered in 2021.
For the first six months, the TIV increased 33 per cent to 331,386 units from 249,178 units registered in the corresponding period of 2021.
This was attributed to the pent-up demand for new vehicles during the period and the low base effect i.e., low TIV for the first-half of 2021 as a result of the implementation of full movement control order (FMCO) in June last year.
Total production volume during the first-half of 2022 jumped 31.8 per cent to a total of 317,933 units compared to 241,288 units in the same period last year.
This was because there was a total lockdown enforced by the government in June 2021.
The higher total production volume was also in tandem with the surge in demand for new vehicles.