The national carmaker retains 2nd in the automotive sales sector with an estimated market share of 22.6% for 2022

by AUFA MARDHIAH / TMRgraphic

PROTON Holdings Bhd sold 14,787 units for domestic and export in June, making it the best sales month of the year to date.

According to the national carmaker, this marks a 51% growth from May and boosts total sales for the first half of the year (1H22) to 60,124 units, an increase of 3.9% over the same period in 2021.

Proton retained second in the automotive sales sector with an estimated market share of 22.6% for the year, despite decreasing 5.1% and stands at 18.2% currently compared to the first six months of the previous year; meanwhile the Total Industry Volume is estimated to be at 331,164 units.

Proton’s deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah said that the government’s announcement regarding the removal of the Sales and Services Tax (SST) incentives on July 1 created a surge in bookings to leverage the savings offered.

“Proton has received more than 150,000 bookings for the first six months of the year and when added to carry-over orders from 2021, we will need to work hard to deliver cars as quickly as possible to eager customers,” he said in a statement.

“Thankfully, the gradual resolution to our parts shortage issues has not only boosted production but also had a positive effect on the after-sales network. As promised, all our 3S/4S outlets now have a three months stock of fast-moving parts and this is replicated at our parts warehouse. Supply issues for other parts are also being resolved so we are hopeful of delivering a higher level of after-sales service to our customers soon,” he added.

Proton X50 posted its best sales month with 4,473 units registered; allowing it to retain as an undisputed sales leader for B-segment SUVs and the overall SUV market.

In addition, the 2022 version of X70 recorded its best performance in 20 months with 2,696 units, making the model retain the lead sales for C-segment SUVs.

On top of that, the recently launched Saga model was registered at 5,460 units in June, simultaneously propelling it back to the top of the A-segment sedan class and pushing the model’s cumulative total for the year to 23,484 units.

Meanwhile, Exora remains the leader in the C-segment MPV class with 513 units registered; while Persona and Iriz achieved 1,224 and 421 registrations, placing them third and fourth in their respective market segments.

On the other hand, Proton positioned its name as the top exporting automotive brand in Malaysia and outpaced the growth in export sales with an increase of 81.2% to 2,722 units for 1H22 compared to the previous year.

Overall, Saga continues to lead the sales for Proton with 1,602 units (an increase of 78%), X70 and X50 posted best-ever export numbers with 377 and 100 units in June.

As for individual markets, Pakistan continues to be the biggest exporter with 1,770 units for 1H22 (an increase of 183% compared to 1H21), followed by Brunei and Bangladesh with 203 and 194 units respectively.

“Proton’s exports are one of the pillars to drive our future growth and are also in line with our promise to the government to help develop Malaysia’s automotive export industry. With the addition of new markets such as South Africa to our portfolio, we target for export volumes to continue on their current growth trajectory and form an even larger portion of our sales in the future,” said Roslan.