September 2016 New Car Sales: Market Still Sluggish

Malaysia’s new vehicle sales for the month of September dropped by 7.9 percent month-on-month, with cumulative sales reaching 418,433 units, still 13.8 percent lower than the same nine-month period last year.

As expected by analysts, the Perodua Axia and Bezza has begun eating into the sales of the aging Perodua Myvi, which at one time was Perodua’s best-seller. Following Perodua’s 40 percent spike in August sales, achieved on the back of the Bezza’s launch in July, Perodua’s sales declined by 19.3 percent last month.

Honda remains the best-selling non-national brand, leading archrival Toyota by over 40 percent. However, Honda’s numbers for September declined by 9.5 percent despite the launch of the new Honda Accord last month.

Proton on the other hand, is showing a strong 36.7 percent month-on-month growth, pushed ahead by tailwind from the success of the recently introduced Proton Persona and Saga.

Toyota declined by 13.5 percent. This is despite having just launched the Toyota Sienta in August. However, Toyota’s performance is expected to show some improvement next month once contribution from the new Toyota Vios, which was launched earlier this month, is factored in.

Mercedes-Benz continued its strong performance, outselling even mainstream brands like Isuzu and Mazda. The three-pointed star now holds a nearly 50 percent lead over archrival BMW. The company had recently achieved its highest ever quarterly sales in Q3 2016.

While BMW looks destined to play second fiddle to Mercedes-Benz for the rest of the year, the company is actually doing a lot better than last year, with a cumulative sales now doing 20.5 percent better than last year. It’s growing healthily, just not as fast as Mercedes-Benz.