KUALA LUMPUR: How did the major national and non-national car brands fare month-on-month (MoM) and year-on-year (YoY) in July, sales wise?
We save national marques Perodua and Proton for last, and focus first on the likes of Toyota, Honda, Mazda and Nissan, and to a lesser extent, Chery.
Non-national brands
Mazda appears to have posted the biggest MoM growth as it sold 24 per cent more passenger vehicles during the month but down 10 per cent YoY.
This was followed by Toyota (up 17 per cent MoM, up 5.0 YoY), buoyed by its popular top models, namely the all-new Vios, Yaris, Corolla Cross and Hilux.
Honda came up next (up 6.0 per cent MoM, up 15 per cent YoY) with its sales driven by the City, Civic and all-new HR-V, while Nissan (down 7.0 MoM, down 15 per cent YoY) was still losing out in the all-new vehicles race.
The latter was mainly dependent on its massive rebates to stay in competition, according to an analyst.
Based on sales projection, Mazda currently has 2,500 units of backlogged orders, or equivalent to three to five months of delivery.
Competition-wise, Mazda and Honda are seen to be losing market share to newcomer Chery whose year-to-date 2024 sales stood at 7,931 units to close in to Mazda's particularly at 9,715 units.
Toyota currently has about 20,000 units of backlogged orders that should take three to six months to clear, while Honda has some 15,000 units of backlogged orders or two to three months to clear.
Nissan currently depends on the facelifted Serena S-Hybrid, Navara and Almera Turbo with about 1,000 units of backlogged orders (one to two months).
Overall, new vehicle sales in Malaysia, also known as total industry volume (TIV), soared 24 per cent MoM to 71,730 units in July on a full production month with the absence of major plant closure (both Perodua and Proton plants closed for a week in June) as well as various new launches by carmakers.
Of the 71,730, the passenger vehicle segment accounted for 65,781 units. The segment grew 25 per cent MoM and 11 per cent YoY.
National car brands
Perodua remains the country's top-selling car brand last month and year-todate. It accounted for 49 per cent share of the overall vehicle market in July.
Proton had a 23 per cent share, followed equally by Toyota and Honda witha 10 per cent share each. The next best brand was Mazda with a two per cent share of the pie.
Kenanga Research analyst Wan Mustaqim Wan Ab Aziz said Perodua's sales (up 35 per cent MoM, up 13 per cent YoY) continued to be propelled by the all-new Alza and all-new Axia, with equally strong sales of the Bezza, MyVi, and Ativa models.
Based on sales projection, Perodua currently has 100,000 unist of backlogged orders (up to eight months for the Axia, Alza and Bezza, and up to three months for the Ativa/Myvi models), Wan Mustaqim noted
Proton's sales (up 39 per cent MoM, up 14 per cent YoY) were mainly driven by the all-new X70, X50 and X90 with a total of 3,030 units of the SUVs sold, making up 20 per cent of its total sales.
This was supported by the all-new S70, as well as face-lifted Persona, Iriz, Exora and Saga (collectively known as PIES).
Based on sales projection, Proton currently has 25,000 units of backlogged orders (up to 12 months for the X50 and by five months for other models).
More BEVs in the market.
Wan Mustaqim said vehicle sales will also be supported by new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) that enjoy sales and service tax (SST) exemption and other EV facilities incentives up until 2025 for full-imported models and 2027 for locally-assembled units.
The new registration for BEVs leapt from 274 units in 2021 to over 3,400 units in 2022, before rising further to 10,159 units last year.
A total of 6,617 units had been sold in the first six months of 2024.
Kenanga Research expects more favourable incentive from the government that has set a national target for EVs and hybrid vehicles of 15 per cent of the TIV by20Y30 and 38 per cent by 2040.
It also expects the government to speed up the approval for charging stations.
The number of charging stations in operation currently at 3,951 should almost triple to 10,000 by end-2025, Wan Mustaqim said.