Yesterday was a “Proton day” in terms of local news coverage and today is Perodua’s turn to flaunt the figures and reveal future plans over a Chinese New Year lunch with the media.
While Proton’s recent rise is not at all affecting the long-time market leader – which achieved yet another record year of sales in 2019 – Proton’s avowed aim is to initially lead some segments and eventually be the overall market leader in Malaysia. Of course, to do that it will have to get past Perodua, and surely there’s no bigger task.
When asked about Proton’s rise, and more specifically P1’s 2020 sales target of 132,000 units (which would be a massive 32% jump from 2019), Perodua president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad welcomed the competition.
“For us in Perodua, we welcome competition. We welcome in the sense that competition will make us even better. We will start to study and find out, find the possible countermeasures to allow us to compete – of course, healthy competition – and make sure that we stay ahead,” he said.
Zainal also pointed us to the potential benefits to the local automotive industry a stronger Proton can bring. “As for Proton, I understand that they announced around 30% increase in volume (for this year). Based on their announcement, and based on our forecasted volume for this year – which is a TIV of 610,000 – this is good for the industry.
“Imagine if we purchase from the local industry about RM6 billion a year, and they increase their volume to 130,000 units, and they purchase say, 50% of what we purchase – we would have purchased around RM9-10 billion from the industry,” he said. Perodua’s target is to purchase RM6 billion from local vendors this year, which will be 11.1% more than 2019’s total outlay.
“We have about 185 vendors, maybe they have more or less than us. The industry will benefit, the vendors will benefit, and of course – we can continue to provide employment and economic benefit for the country,” the P2 chief stressed.
As pointed out before, P2 isn’t one to be complacent, and the Sg Choh carmaker has something big up its sleeves for this year. It has not been explicitly named, but the D55L compact SUV based on the Daihatsu Rocky is set to debut later this year. The crossover will have an all-new DNGA platform, a downsized 1.0L turbo engine and Level 2 autonomous driving, all of which are new to the brand. We’re expecting Perodua’s Rocky, which is smaller in size and engine, to also undercut the “Proton X50” in price.
“Yes I understand that they (Proton) are coming up very well; however we are having our own strategy to make sure that we can provide the best to our customers,” a confident Zainal Abidin stated.
Let us add something that the Perodua boss did not mention: ultimately, competition is great for the consumer, so guys, give us the best you’ve got!
GALLERY: Daihatsu Rocky Sporty Style at TAS 2020
GALLERY: Daihatsu Rocky official images
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Perodua is being humble here. Very good.
Proton must learn about attitude from Perodua. See Perodua, a No.1 carmaker in Malaysia but still stays humble and not talk big unlike Proton. Ever year, Proton will syiok sendiri and say that their cars are Game Changers but 4 years later it is proven to be Game Over. So this is why Proton needs to learn to be humble to become a Game-Changing company
Copy paste: “So unlike their troll fanboys here, the company itself is sporting and eager on the competition. Well that shows maturity despite the immaturity of their supporters. Bravo to Perodua.”
Please learn from your bosses how to be humble and respect your opponents. Only those like you so angkuh cannot see how badly Perodua is being affected by resurgent of Proton. While Perodua expects a flat target, Proton is aiming for a 32% increase. Previously you keep harping on Perodua doing 4X sales of Proton, but now it’s just 2X more. Apa dah jadi?
Same person syiok sendiri comment own post. SH
Gentlemen’s talk.
Irrelevant comparison and competition lulz same like
Tapioca vs Rice
remove taxes of foreign makes and than compete la, both proton and perodua will close shop
If no tax, then perodua may rebadge CBU Toyotas from Japan instead. How’s that?
They were afraid if P1 will failed. Then it can impact P2.
They (with Daihatsu) offered P1 dual vvti aluminium engines for thier survival earlier.
P2 now has less worry since P1 is surviving.
Both target market is different.
Not really. Only the Axia has no equal segment. Or Persona.
Myvi = Iriz
Bezza = Saga
Alza = Exora-ish
D55L = X50
Idiot, kuku. Might as well said the both sell the same shape of cars.
Aruz Length 4435mm
X50 Length 4330mm
D55L Length 3995mm
X30 Length 4005mm
Wrong. Actual is :-
Proton : Perodua
No model from Proton vs Axia
Saga vs Bezza
No model from Proton vs D55L
Iriz vs Myvi
Persona vs No model from Perodua
No model from Proton vs Alza
X50 vs Aruz
Prevé vs No model from Perodua
Exora vs No model from Perodua
X70 vs No model from Perodua
Perdana vs No model from Perodua
For sure and of cos p2 d55l will outsell x50. X50 unknown quality engine like x70 telan minyak.
X70 minyak kaw2. 11sec to 100km/h not worth for the dinosaur oil。
So unlike their troll fanboys here, the company itself is sporting and eager on the competition. Well that shows maturity despite the immaturity of their supporters. Bravo to Perodua.
But sir, our Japanese bosses are running away from the competitor’s challenge. We all are surely grateful to Daihatsu & Toyota for donating their cars to us for rebadging during the past 30 years and we will continue to rebadge until we close shop. Thank you Daihatsu & Toyota.
But to compete with the challenge by Proton we only wish you wouldn’t throw us your old and outdated models to do the rebadging. Malu tau, when customers asking why Daihatsu have newer cars and we still rebadging old models.
This is butthurt Axxx guy. Hahaha.
I malu about you guys. You were supposed to promo our Perodua brand in the internet but you turn and spin too much fantasies about our cars, now you make us very difficult to sell our cars.
Many times a potential customer go away unsatisfied when we explained that our cars don’t have any Made in Japan but more Made in Indonesia parts, we had to sadly tell them we paid off MIROS for our 5 stars displayed on the banner, we had to tell them 20km/L FC is impossible when other potential customers pushed us on that even showing us your statement saying that.
When we explained the reality where our cars aren’t that fantastic, they walked away shout ‘Perodua semua tipu sahaja, tak boleh dicaya’. How do I explain to the bosses we lost so much sales because of unrealistic tall tales you all promo on the internet? We are selling normal cars but you are promising customers a unicorn with rainbows. How laa my kolik?
Rebadge Geely cars tak rasa malu kah? Tanya jer.
“Rebadge” means everything same inside out only change badge. While X70 was a right-hand drive (LHT) conversion from a left-hand drive (RHT) Boyue. So it’s not like change badge then directly can use.
Tak malu pun. P2 rebadge 25 tahun masih tak tau malu?
P2 CEO commands my respect for showing such maturity. Kudos!
It’ll give them reason to beg from Big Bro D and T for more models to rebadge, and then compete with them indirectly at the same time. *cough* *cough* *rush/aruz* ha ha ha ha
just make sure this Rocky has rear Aircon vents in Malaysia or else….