UMW Holdings Bhd sold a total of 20,739 vehicles in January 2021 driven by a higher demand arising from the sales tax exemption.
The group said UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd (UMWT) delivered 3,845 units last month, up 4.1% year-on-year than the 3,692 units recorded last year.
It said Toyota Vios, Yaris and Hilux continued to be the carmaker’s best-selling models in January.
Meanwhile, its associate company Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) sold 16,894 units in January 2021 and aims at selling 240,000 units this year, a 9% increase over the 220,163 units sold in 2020.
Perodua has planned to increase its stock by targeting to increase production to 272,000 vehicles this year, the highest in its history, and will be buying a record RM6.5 billion worth of locally-sourced components in 2021.
“We are indeed grateful the government has allowed the car assembly, showroom and service centre operations to continue with strict compliance to the standard operating procedures under the Movement Control Order (MCO) 2.0.
“We are also thankful to the government for extending the sales-tax exemption incentive to June 30, 2021, which has enabled the group to register healthy sales in January,” UMW president and group CEO Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Mohd Kenali said in a statement yesterday.
Moving forward, he said UMWT and Perodua will continue to focus on introducing new and improved models and offer superior aftersales services to satisfy its customers’ requirements and expectations to achieve the targets in 2021.
UMWT launched the improved Toyota Vios and Yaris on Dec 17 last year. It also launched the updated Toyota Fortuner and Innova on Feb 2 recently.
The 2021 Toyota Fortuner comes in two variants with styling, performance and safety updates, while retaining all the strong attributes that make it a popular SUV nationwide.
The new 2021 Toyota Innova range, which comes in three variants, also has updated styling, features and additional safety systems that have been made standard.
The Malaysian Automotive Association forecasts the total industry volume will grow by nearly 8% to 570,000 units in 2021, underpinned by the projected GDP growth of between 6.5% and 7.5% in 2021, as well as continued support from the government.
The automotive market is expected to recover from the impact of the MCO 2.0 by the first half of the year, particularly after the scheduled nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Perodua president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad previously said Perodua is expecting its service intakes to grow 20% from two million units in 2020 to 2.4 million units in 2021.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
