PETALING JAYA: Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd’s (Perodua) sales rose 13% to 22,940 units in December 2021 from 20,299 units in the previous month, bringing its total registered vehicles in 2021 to 190,291 units, a 13.6% decline from 220,154 units sold in 2020 as the impact of Covid-19, semiconductor chip supply disruption and recent floods adversely affected production.
“The 190,291 registrations were below our target of 200,000 units for 2021 as the challenges in 2021 was greater than anticipated,” said Perodua president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad in a statement.
Last month, Perodua set a sales target of 240,000 units for 2022. However, it is likely to review the figure later this month as the carmaker takes the latest developments and events into consideration.
Myvi continues to lead the overall Malaysian market in terms of sales by model with 47,525 units, followed by the Axia and Bezza dominating the country’s A segment market.
On the bigger picture, Zainal said he expects the total industry volume (TIV) for the year to see a similar sales impact with an estimated decrease of 23.6% to 504,536 units from 528,172 units sold in 2020.
“Despite the lower-than-expected performance for 2021, our countermeasures for the impact of Covid-19 have proven successful so far as we and our suppliers are dynamically cooperating and coordinating our efforts to ensure interruptions are minimised.
“These efforts include having a ready team of personnel to take active countermeasures at an alternate site if a supplier is under lockdown and also by allocating Perodua staff to shore up any suppliers that need temporary manpower replacements.”
The Perodua president opined that the local automotive supply chain has suffered a massive setback in recent years. However, he said, there is a silver lining as the order bank for Perodua vehicles remains healthy because consumers are still responding positively to the sales tax exemption introduced by the government.
As for the recent Perodua Flood Assistance programme, Zainal revealed that 1,675 people have responded to it and those vehicles are being inspected at Perodua service centres across the country.
Source: The Sun Daily
