KUALA LUMPUR: Car sales momentum is expected to moderate in the coming months owing to the soft economic climate amid the Covid-19 outbreak and political uncertainty, says Affin Hwang Capital research.
The research house maintained its neutral outlook on the sector and cut its 2020 total industry volume (TIV) assumption to 583,000 units, or 3.5% lower year-on-year (y-o-y).
For January, Proton's car sales volume rose 25% y-o-y to 8,500 units owing to higher demand for the updated 2019 models including the Saga, Iriz, Persona and Exora.
Its one-month market share for January rose to 19.9%, which was its highest since March 2014 at 20.9%.
Perodua, on the other hand, saw its car sales volume decline to 17,500 units, which was 13% lower y-o-y, on weaker demand over its model line-up.
Perodua's market share for the one-month period remained the highest at 41%.
Affin Hwang noted that the down-trading trend in the domestic automotive market is gaining pace with sales of cheaper national brands with refreshed line ups outpacing the pricier Japanese car line-ups.
"Most Japanese marques saw a slump in 1M20 sales volume – Honda (-19.4% yoy), Nissan (-45.9% yoy) and Mazda (-31.5% yoy; current backlog at est. 1.3k units), except for Toyota (+16% yoy on low base effect)," it said.
In the luxury car segment, Mercedes-Benz 1M20 sales plunged to 645 units, 39% lower y-o-y amid the soft economic climate.
