Perodua eyes 2% rise in sales this year
> Plans to sell 209,000 cars and maintain its market share despite no new launches planned
PETALING JAYA: Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) which has no plans to launch a new model at this juncture, is targeting for the sale of 209,000 vehicles this year, which is a 2% jump from the 204,900 units sold in 2017.
Speaking to reporters at the 2017 full year review briefing on Friday, Perodua’s president and CEO Datuk Dr Aminar Rashid Salleh said it hasn’t been long since the launch of the new Myvi, and the company has been working overtime to fulfill outstanding orders.
“Let us focus on fulfilling the outstanding orders for the Myvi and not forgetting the three other models. If we have a new model launch in the pipeline we will make an announcement, but at this point there are no such plans,” he said.
The new Perodua Myvi has garnered over 36,000 bookings since order-taking began in November 2017, and over 11,000 units have been delivered to date.
“We expect more registrations moving forward, as most of the customers who placed orders last year wanted their cars delivered in 2018. That being said, we are also doing our level best to meet demand especially for the 1.5 variants, which was beyond our expectations,” said Aminar.
To hit its sales target this year, the group is focusing on maximising the sales potential of all its models to meet its target.
Last year the group saw slightly lower sales than 2016 (207,100) due to challenging market conditions, intense competition and strict hire purchase guidelines.
The group is also aiming to sustain its market share at current levels.
“The momentum carried by the Bezza in the earlier part of 2017 and the continued demand for our other models have helped make us the top-selling carmaker in Malaysia for the 12th year running. Based on our internal calculations, we expect the total industry volume to increase to 590,000 units in 2018, which would see our market share sustained at slightly above 35%,” Aminar added.
Service intakes are expected to grow by 1.9% from 2.1 million intakes in 2017 to 2.14 million in 2018.
Perodua has also seen a shift in customer profile in terms of bookings with a growing number of replacement and additional car buyers as compared to first car buyers.
The group will be investing in facility upgrades for its after sales segment, while also increasing the automation rate of its manufacturing facilities. The Perodua Manufacturing Sdn Bhd company has seen an upgrade in its automation facilities while Perodua Global Manufacturing Sdn Bhd has an automation rate of 75%.
Meanwhile, exports slipped by 20% last year to 3,766 units from 4,696 in 2016. Going forward, Perodua is looking to concentrate more on parts and accessories instead of complete builtups which Aminar deemed as challenging, due to unfavourable exchange rate conditions.
“We import in yen and US dollar, but we export in US dollar. Hence, with the strengthening of the ringgit against the dollar. So if we were to export more it is going to hit our bottom-line. Having said that, we just launched the new Myvi, hopefully it will find a way to some of our existing export countries,” Aminar explained.