Looks like October 2018 car sales wasn’t a fluke and the recovery following the September crash is real. Official sales data by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) for November is out, and it shows a 2% rise from October for 48,282 units.
The November 2018 tally is 1.8% or 905 units less than the same month last year, but year-to-date sales for the first 11 months of the year show a 5% increase – at 550,526 units versus 521,906 for Jan-Nov 2017. This encouraging result is attributed to the beginning of traditional year-end promotional campaigns, and vehicle stocks being replenished following a clear-out from the tax holiday.
Now, it’s clear that the reintroduction of the sales and services tax (SST) didn’t really blunt buyer sentiment, especially with CKD locally assembled prices being lower than – or identical to – that with GST. MAA’s outlook for December sales is slightly higher than November, as it expects aggressive promotions by carmakers. This means that we’re heading towards decent growth for the full year 2018 total industry volume.
Zooming into November figures, Perodua’s sales went up by 8.1%. P2’s tally so far is close to 209k – its full year target – so it’s a job well done for the market leader. Below that, all of Honda (-2%), Proton (-5.4%) and Toyota (-19.4%) saw declines. Elsewhere, the big gainers were Hyundai (+183.8%), Subaru (+43.1%), Volkswagen (+38.8%) and Mazda (+14.3%).
Premium players Lexus (+86.7%), BMW (+16.1%) and Mercedes-Benz (+3.9%) also saw sales pick up. We’re guessing that much of the fluctuations could be due to new stock coming in. Here’s to 2018 ending on a high for the Malaysian auto industry!
