MAA Vehicle Sales Data for May 2020 – Numbers are Rising, Slowly but Surely

April 2020 was arguably the worst month ever in terms of new vehicle registrations, but is there positive growth in May or are things looking just as bad? 

April 2020 was arguably the worst month ever as far as the Malaysian car market is concerned, as only 141 units of new vehicles were registered, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and our very own MCO. 

This represented a 99.37% drop from the 22,478 units that were registered in March 2020, which was already 44% lower than the sales recorded in February right before the nationwide lockdown came into effect.

However, things are definitely looking on the up as a total of 20,456 new passenger vehicles were registered in the month of May 2020 followed by 2,504 units of commercial vehicles, which brings the total industry volume (TIV) sold in May to 22,960 units.

Out of the lot, the registration figures for the month of May 2020 based on brand is as mentioned below:

1. Perodua - 7,886 units
2. Proton - 5,676 units
3. Toyota - 2,707 units
4. Honda - 2,678 units
5. Mazda - 503 units
6. Nissan – 450 units
7. Volkswagen – 145 units
8. Volvo – 70 units
9. Mitsubishi – 67 units
10. Renault – 65 units
11. Peugeot – 63 units
12. Hyundai/Inokom – 38 units
13. Lexus – 31 units
14. Kia – 24 units
15. Porsche – 24 units
16. CAM – 16 units
17. Land Rover – 6 units
18. Jaguar – 3 units
19. Isuzu – 2 units
20. Foton – 1 unit

*brands that are not in the list did not register any new vehicles in May 2020

As for the year-to-date (YTD) cumulative figures, total TIV as of May 2020 has dropped to 129,604 (including commercial vehicles) from 253,731 units over the same period in 2019.

As low as the numbers are, factors such as the Sales Tax exemption, a more relaxed Movement Control Order from 1st of July 2020, and additional promotions and initiatives taken by car manufacturers are expected to drive more consumers towards purchasing new vehicles within the coming months, which should translate into a positive upswing TIV.

But just how high can we expect? 

MAA had in April already revised the country's TIV downward by 33%, from 600,000 units to 400,000 units for 2020. 

To add salt to the injury, according to a survey by Jobstreet conducted in May, up to 20% of respondents from a sample size of 5000 revealed that they had been retrenched due to COVID-19. It is also expected that more than two million Malaysians are expected to end up unemployed.  

Gan Bock Hern, Jobstreet Country Manager went on to add that "35% of Malaysians have experienced a salary reduction of more than 30% the movement control order period."

Taking into accounts all the factors, is a 400,000 TIV overtly optimistic from MAA or do we foresee a bullish recovery for the second half of 2020? Time will tell.