Car makers rushing to fulfil orders before March next year
Car manufacturers are scrambling to deliver orders made during the sales tax (SST) exemption period.
These cars will have to be delivered by March 31 for a customer to enjoy the tax exemption.
Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said car production had improved but some brands were facing parts and chip shortages, especially European brands.
As such, she said, not all companies would be able to meet the deadline to produce all cars approved for the SST exemption.
“(There will be) no impact if not all cars are able to be delivered by the deadline except for cancellation of confirmed orders, which we hope will be a small number,” she said, hoping that the government would be more lenient with the deadline.
Aishah said December would be a rush period for most car companies to register new vehicles.
On the MAA’S target of 600,000 units of vehicle sales for 2022, Aishah said the industry was almost reaching its target and was expected to exceed its total industry volume forecast.
Proton deputy chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said barring any unforeseen circumstances that would severely limit the supply of parts and components, Proton was confident of being able to deliver all orders placed before the deadline.
He said the current car production numbers were stable and the countermeasures they initiated earlier to account for spare part shortages had managed to help them maintain the volume.
“We are not running at maximum capacity right now but there is currently sufficient supply to ensure waiting times for customers are not too long.
“At the same time, we are also carefully managing waiting times for customers who booked their cars after June 30 so that those with new bookings do not have to wait too long,” he added.
Roslan said Proton would also be focusing on sales promotion before the calendar rolls into 2023 to build the order book heading and to ensure minimal carry-over stocks.
Mazda senior sales adviser Annison Francis said Mazda would likely not have any promotions this month due to the current worldwide chip shortage problem still affecting its production lines.
“We are still having a significant backlog for CBU units while CKD car production remains slow.
“There will be no promotions for the festive month as we have basically no excess stock of CBU and CKD models at the moment, so there is nothing for us to sell,” he said.
He said some customers had begun cancelling orders as they were uncertain if the orders would be fulfilled before the SST exemption deadline.
“Many of them have determined that it would be better if they just spend a few thousand ringgit more to get a more premium car which is in stock rather than pay the SST tax,” he said, adding that rather than extending the deadline, the government should focus on addressing the chip shortage issue instead.
Francis said if production continued as normal, the company should be able to fulfil all the orders placed before the SST exemption deadline.
On June 20, then Finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz announced that a total of 868,422 units of vehicles had been sold, with the sales tax exemption totalling Rm4.7bil.
As of then, 264,000 units of vehicles booked during the sales tax exemption period have yet to be completed due to the worldwide microchip shortage.