Perodua president and chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said the company had originally planned to end the production of the current generation Alza this month.
"But production interruption last year had caused us to have an outstanding order of 3,200 units to be fulfilled. As such, we had to keep the factory line running until March or April to meet the back orders," he said at a media briefing on the company's outlook for 2022 here.
He said Perodua's priority was to ensure that the company was prepared for the introduction of the new model.
"We want to make sure that the transition from the old Alza to the new model is smooth. We will be launching the new Alza this year as we are also working on introducing another new Perodua model next year," he said.
Alza.
The Alza multi-purpose vehicle, which features a three-row seating layout, was launched in 2009 and had received updates to keep its appeal fresh.
Zainal also said Perodua would be announcing its electrified vehicle strategy soon that includes electric vehicles and hybrid models.
He said unlike other non-national manufacturers that could launch their EVs quickly based on their technology, Perodua had to consider the affordability of its electrified vehicles.
Zainal said pricing is an important factor and Perodua had to make sure that its electrified vehicles are not too expensive.
At the outlook briefing, Zainal said the company was expecting to improve its market share to 40.6% this year by registering 247,800 vehicles against an estimated 610,000 total industry volume (TIV) as compared to a 37.4% market share in 2021.
Perodua has made an internal projection of 610,000 TIV forecast as it believes that the market could surpass the 600,000 TIV target set by the Malaysian Automotive Association.
“For this year, we expect to produce 265,900 vehicles which is 37.5% higher compared to 193,400 vehicles produced in 2021.
“The increase in production would result in the increase in locally-sourced automotive parts by 41.5% to RM7.5bil as compared with the RM5.3bil purchased in 2021.
“This recovery would help the industry heal faster as the demand for vehicles is still strong,” Zainal said.
Zainal said the demand remained strong last year for all models with Myvi leading the line-up having registered 47,525 units followed by Axia (43,080 units), Bezza (42,698 units), Ativa (26,847 units), Aruz (15,313 units) and Alza (14,828 units).
“Since the new Myvi was launched on Nov 18 last year, Perodua delivered 7,055 units with booking reaching 31,154 orders since Nov 9, 2021.
Zainal also said the sales tax exemption initiative introduced by the government is still an excellent incentive for the consumer to purchase new cars.
“Our order book for new vehicles is still quite healthy with the guarantee that the production will go uninterrupted will mean that we could fulfil the outstanding orders in a timely manner,” he said.
(From left) Perodua Auto Corp vice-president Datuk Ahmad Suhaimi Hashim, Zainal and Perodua Sales director JH Rozman Jaafar at the media briefing.
Zainal said last year was challenging as the country and its main industries had to cope with various crises throughout the year.
“With that being said, we have learnt a lot from this situation and have incorporated effective counter measures to ensure that we will be able to face them better if they re-occur,” he said.
On the floods in December and early January this year, Zainal said Perodua had received almost 2,103 flood cases throughout the country and of that number, 366 vehicles had been repaired and returned to the respective owners.
The influx of Perodua vehicles to its service centres was in response to the Perodua Flood Assist Programme that consists of a 50% discount for standard parts, free labour for all parts replacement and repairs as well as free 24-hour towing service via Perodua’s 1800-88-5555 hotline number.
In addition, the Finance Ministry had announced a RM1,000 voucher initiative on Jan 7 to assist Malaysians whose vehicles were damaged by the flood.
The automotive discount voucher, which has an expiry date of March 31, can be used to claim against the repair of a water-damaged private vehicle or towards the replacement of a vehicle deemed to be a total loss.
