Perodua tops sales for 2009

According to Perodua, the demand for the recently launched Alza is overwhelming with 18,000 bookings received since its launched. With the Chinese New Year break around the corner, they are trying to produce and roll out as many units as possible. So far, only 3,000 units have been delivered and they promise to roll out another 4,000 units in March considering the short February month. If you are hoping to buy an Alza, you would expect to wait about 3 and half to 4 months but Perodua is looking to shorten the waiting time to 2 to 2 and a half months. They would not want to repeat the problem when Myvi was launched where some had to wait up to 8 months for their new cars. Perodua said that they would not underestimate the demand for the Alza just like they did when they first launched the Myvi.

Perodua’s market share in Malaysia is 31.3 percent for 2009 with a 0.8 percent improvement from the year before. In 2008, with 30.5 percent market share, they sold some 176,400 units. Coming in close second is the country’s other car manufacturer, Proton. According to Aminar Rashid Salleh, the company’s new Managing Director, “We did considerably well in 2009 with a minimal contraction of 0.4 per cent despite the global economic downturn,”

He added that the government’s recent old car scrapping programme helped to increase the sales of the company where some 20,000 new units were sold. The Myvi remains as the best selling model for Perodua where out of the 166,700 units, 90,000 of them are Myvis. Aminar, who joined Perodua from UMW Toyota said that for 2010, the target for Perodua is 176,000 units.

As mentioned, this is widely expected but by no means something that Perodua can take for granted because with the Proton Exora, which is enjoying huge success, the competition is getting tighter, what more with analysts saying that this is the year of the MPV, they would need to increase their production and delivery systems if they are to meet the demands of their buyers, otherwise they might just ‘jump’ over to Proton.