PETALING JAYA: National car sales are on the rise again, judging from the Malaysian Automotive Association’s latest total industry volume (TIV) figures.
According to Affin Hwang Capital Research, both the national car makes of Proton and Perodua saw their combined market share rising to an eight-year high of 60.9% in January 2020.
“Perodua remains the envy of its peers, as it continues to retain its leadership position in the industry, with a 41% January 2020 market share from 42.3% a year ago, ” it said.
For Proton, meanwhile, the brand’s car sales volume rose 24% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 8,500 units on higher demand for the updated 2019 models of the Saga, Iriz, Persona and Exora, it said.
“The stronger January 2020 performance saw its market share for the month rise to 19.9%, its highest since March 2014 at 20.9%, ” Affin Hwang said.
It noted that most Japanese car brands saw a slump in the period’s sales volume, including Honda (-19.4% y-o-y), Nissan (-45.9% y-o-y) and Mazda (-31.5% y-o-y), which has a current backlog of about 1,300 units.
Toyota has seen its sales volume rising by 16% y-o-y on a low base effect, it said.
“We believe the downtrend is gaining pace in the domestic automotive market, where sales of cheaper national brands with refreshed line-ups have continuously outpaced the pricier Japanese cars, ” the research house said.
For luxury marques such as Mercedes-Benz, its January 2020 sales plunged to only 645 units (-39% y-o-y), the lowest sales volume since the September 2018 volume just after the tax-free period between June and August 2018.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research said that there could be some sort of weakness in underlying demand with the weakened TIV figures, which contracted 12% y-o-y to 42,652 units in January 2020.
It also said that this should be largely due to a shorter working month, given the Chinese New Year festivities falling on Jan 25 this year compared to Feb 5 last year.
Both MIDF Research and Affin Hwang Research have maintained their neutral stance on the industry.
