Saga and Persona models drive Proton sales
National carmaker to maintain steady growth moving forward
PETALING JAYA: Proton Holdings Bhd’s sales performance has continued to improve year-to-date, driven by encouraging demand for the national carmaker’s Saga and Persona models.
From January to November this year, Proton’s total car sales have risen by about 2% year-on-year to a total of 66,190 units. In comparison, the company sold about 65,069 units in the same period in 2016.
Both Saga and Persona models continued to lead all other Proton models with 28,368 and 18,113 units sold respectively year-todate, making up for 70% of Proton’s total car sales.
According to Proton vice-president of sales and marketing Abdul Rashid Musa, the carmaker will be maintaining its steady growth moving forward, following a challenging operational period in the past few years.
“It has been a challenging journey for Proton since the past five years and the steady growth that we recorded from January to November 2017 is a positive achievement for the company.
“We will continue to push ourselves harder in the coming months and we hope that customers will take advantage of the incredible year-end deals for Proton cars.
“The Saga and Persona models have been the most popular choice among our customers due to their excellent value for money propositions.
The new Saga offers great drivability, performs much more smoothly and has modern and practical convenient features, suitable for those buying their first car, while the Persona has better flexibility for individuals of all sorts of personalities,” he said in a press release.
To note, the national carmaker is 50.1% owned by DRB-Hicom Bhd and 49.9% owned by China-based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd.
On Proton Iriz’s sales performance, Abdul Rashid said the model had gained slight traction in sales, with a 2.8% increase in November 2017 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. However, the model has registered a lacklustre performance year-to-date.
Abdul Rashid remains upbeat on Proton’s performance going forward, given the current quality improvements that are on-going internally.
“Together with our partner, Proton has intensified quality improvement processes and efforts, with exceptional sharing of knowledge and skills; and the opportunity for our local team to be trained at Geely in China. Progress has been positive since Proton already owns good and durable products.
“The reliability and durability of our cars were tested in a gruelling nine-hour endurance race at Sepang 1,000 km 2017 last month where the Proton car was the overall winner.”