Bezza boost for Perodua
CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC: Carmaker maintains target of selling 216,000 vehicles this year
PERUSAHAAN Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) expects its market share to grow beyond the current 35.5 per cent, underpinned by the new Perodua Bezza sedan.
However, its president and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Aminar Rashid Salleh said yesterday despite the likely boost from Bezza, it was maintaining its target of selling 216,000 vehicles this year.
He attributed the sentiment to a subdued automotive market.
“The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has revised the total industry volume (TIV) from 650,000 units to 580,000 for this year.
“This reflects the current softer market and, hence, the reason we are keeping our sales target at 216,000 units. We are cautiously optimistic.
“Our market share currently stands at 35.5 per cent and there is a possibility that it may go up,” said Aminar Rashid.
On whether the subdued market was due to the declining loan approvals, he said Perodua continued to engage with banks on the matter.
“Our conversion rate is at 72 per cent, which we think is acceptable under the current market conditions. It used to be around 80 per cent.
“Our sales front runners have been trained to go through the application documents before submitting them to the banks. This explains why our conversion rate is still International Trade and Industry Minister Perodua president and chief executive officer Perodua chairman Industry Minister high,” he added.
Aminar Rashid was speaking prior to the launch of Bezza, the company’s first sedan model, yesterday.
It is also its 11th model overall and first energy-efficient vehicle (EEV).
“We expect some cannibalisation on the Myvi and Axia models but we have seen no cancellations so far, although we do see some holdbacks on purchases to wait for the Bezza.
“From our previous estimations, we have already targeted which of our models will be the bestsellers. We will have a better figure tomorrow,” he added.
Production capacity for the Bezza stands at 6,000 to 7,000 units per month with an annual capacity of 200,000 units from its EEV-certified plant — Perodua Global Manufacturing Sdn Bhd in Rawang — a modern (third from left) with ( from left)
Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd president and Second International Trade and
in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. facility with an over 75 per cent automation rate.
The plant also produces Perodua Axia.
Perodua officially opened bookings for the Bezza last Saturday, with prices ranging from RM37,300 for the 1.0L standard G (manual transmission) to RM50,800 for its 1.3L advance variant with automatic transmission.