National brands Proton and Perodua both had a stellar year in 2020, increasing their combined market share to 62.1% (highest since 2003) out of the total industry volume of 529,434 units. This was propped up by continued strong sales by market leader Perodua (41.6% market share in 2020) and the continued revival of Proton (20.5%).
While that may be good news for Proton and Perodua, it also means that all the non-national brands in Malaysia are now playing for the little leagues, sharing less than 38% of the pie. That’s a far cry from their glory days of between 2014 and 2018, when Malaysians bought more new non-national vehicles than either Protons or Peroduas.
Although the current dominance isn’t quite as prominent as the early 2000s, when the two national carmakers cornered around 80% of the market, the trend should be worrying foreign brands, especially those that have placed significant investments in the country. We posed this question to the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) at an official press conference earlier today.
“We feel [the Malaysian automotive market] should be a level playing field, so that both national and non-national players have the same ability to compete in the market. There are more policies to ensure car companies can attract more investment, whether they are national or non-national brands,” said Datuk Aishah Ahmad, president of the MAA.
Officially, there are no longer any specific protectionism policies in place to spur on national brands in Malaysia (as there have been in the past). However, the current taxation system still heavily favours both Proton and Perodua, as they obviously have more investment, R&D and involvement in the country’s automotive industry ecosystem as a whole, giving them access to more incentives and/or tax-cuts from the government.
Over to you – what do you think of this evolving situation, and how should we approach this sensitive subject, if it is indeed an issue at all?
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Look from a different angle.. malaysia had reached annual new car sales of 500k since 12-14 years back. Then we had about 28 mil ppl.
Today we have approx 32 mil ppl. Logically we can hit 750-800k units a years now.
What went wrong?
B40 morphing into B50.
It might seem that way but in actuality it was the segment pie got larger but ergo others (M40/T20) have expanded in sync.
National carmakers in actual fact selling china and jap cars. So is ekceli all foreign,
A level playing field will cease to be a myth,when P1 and P2 are stripped from protectionism,and all cars compete equally.
Imagine,your children who are working adults 35-40 years old ,still sucking the pacifiers.
There is enough protection given to P1 and 2,time to remove the crutches and walk tall.
When,rakyat wanted Japanese imported or CKD cars,they have to pay higher just cos of the 2 national cars ,and the fairy tale flying car(coming soon).
No PROTECTIONISM ??? What about the sky high excise taxes that go up to 200% of a cars value. Absolutely absurd. Remove excise duties and see who will buy slow Malaysian rubbish cars. They’ll prolly have a 10-20% market share. Perodua and proton acting like big leagues, they are just pro is rebadging cars. Neither of them can even make their own engine
Can’t speak for Perodua as your right on that point but for Proton they have Campro engine and their PIES. So a little bit better than a mere pro rebadger.
Whatever you said is cruel, but true. Malaysia will change to be better. Pray.
It should be a level playing field… MAA said the cruel hard truths. But when you removed their tongkat, alamatnya naik wheelchair ler. Pulakk
100% agree. With a stronger Malaysian currency and no taxes, you can buy a Toyota CAMRY for less than RM95K. Nowadays you can’t bend her a Toyota Corolla for less than RM100K.
What does RM95K get you nowadays? A rebadged Geely.
Funny despite that how a rebadged Geely managed to give so much more value than a Camry double its price. Why? Both are affected by Malaysian currency too what.
There is no use in able to making own engine unless your engine can outperform jap engine…then we can shine in international market, the tiny Msia market do not have the economy of scale for a car company to survive. Removing import tax for foreign cars will only promote ringgit outflow and lower our ringgit value…. in the end ringgit depreciate and price will still goes up. Although now we are rebadging but at least we can have local content…. local people got jobs and salary income
The majority of population growth since 2014 is from foreign residents(ie foreign workers) and of course newborns. We don’t expect these kids to start owning and driving cars until they are a little bit more older.
At the same time something else game changed the transportation options for majority of citizens, the MRT. With better public transport network today compared to 2014, there are lesser reasons for city folks to own a car.
It is indeed an issue. If Proton and/or Perodua dominate the market then there will be a monopoly. And when a monopoly happen, it is the consumer that stand to lose the most.
Remember…when the buying stop, the killing/domination can too
it’s time to evolve..
Yes, foreign brands also can get more incentives/tax-cuts if they set up shop here or invest further in Malaysia. But with Total Industry Volume 600k+ units, it’s not really worth it, worse when the majority of the 600k+ TIV units is already taken by Proton and/or Perodua.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Proton & Perodua very existence is the reason we can never enjoy better cars.
clever man.
without these 2 P, you can bet our auto industry would have been able to attract more global players into the field.
Much like what Thailand is seeing now.
Too bad the boat has already left the dock. Indonesia is already one step ahead of us in enticing electric car manufacturers to set up shop there.
Look at the amount of FDI being poured in recently in 2021 alone. That is all money that could have gone to us.
Seems car manufacs start building their new gen of electric car there. give up malaysia and welcome indon
Proton should have died longgg ago. Dumb geely just had to buy them over.
Without Daihatsu, Perodua would died since Day 1
Without proton and perodua many might not even have a car to begin with. so it’s down to the ridiculous excise duty here again!
I think you do not understand everything people said on top…
Cost of parts increases over there years due to inflation increasing car prices, national currency never improving, and stagnant income levels means more M20 making B40 decisions.
No official protectionism for P1 and P2 but the tax system definitely does. But with market domination and all the profit making, the profits actually go back to the major stakeholders overseas and some GLCs. Sure jobs are created but that’s just a cover for where the profit really goes. If they really wanted to benefit the local people, communities and society, these national car companies should be non-profits: all profits get distributed back to the people through the education system. That’s investing for the future. But that will never happen because of too many structural political obstacles.
So damn tired of looking at dull and underpowered Malaysia Cars on the road. Especially perodua. They rebadge their existence same goes for proton
Well… Perodua really only has the aruz and axia rn as rebadge.. their other cars aren’t rebadged. And now they already are involved in R&D in Japan Daihatsu and Toyota so it’s not fair to call it a full on rebadge company.. as for proton.. they have to rebadge now because they need to build their reputation again. After that as what protons head of design said they will begin designing cars using the platforms provided by geeky.
Rebadges
Dont kid yourself. If you look at perodua evolution they have no inkling capability to come out an original car by themselves, just tell us of which are a 100% original their own creation car.
They are just an overglorified car assembler. They can shout about 95% ativa local content but the molds and designs these suppliers used are from daihatsu, other than its bumpers. A real joke.
The playing field can never be leveled as long as Proton and Perodua enjoys tax cuts while foreign makes have to put with it. If you want to know what a leveled playing field would look like, remove or reduce the taxes on foreign cars. But knowing Malaysia, this will never happen. Every move they make is a short sighted move that only benefits now and not the long run.
Its not about protecting P1 or P2. At least one of them can survive as it has started to re-enter export market with proper engineering capability while the other one is just a sinple rebadge factory with minimal capacity/ability to compete globally.
The tax is not about protecting P1 or P2…its just income for the nation. Just like cigarette and alcohol…. its bad but gomen still allow them to be sold as they got tax.
They should not abolish tax at once but reduce it little by little so other affected sector will adjust slowly.
I do believe we wont save much as the financial sector will adjust interest/profit rate accordingly
review the ridiculous tax rate please and it will become level playing field even for the consumers!
Is the ‘level playing field’ due to incentives and taxes thus cheapness and dominance.
if it’s level playing field, Honda will surely dominate the Malaysian market for decades.
Talk about the price, without proton and perodua, most of malaysian cannot afford to buy a car. don’t dream we can buy imported brand like proton/perodua price level.
ironically, car prices in out neighbour countries are more or less the same as malaysia.
Foreign car manufacturers have massive economies of scale. Toyota and Honda make many millions of vehicles whereas Proton and Perodua struggle to make even ½ million cars a year.
Some protection is still needed to level the playing field with the gigantic international car companies. However, the protection should be conditional upon targets being achieved and not be open ended.
Our national car manufacturers should be transitioning to EVs soon. They can forget about making internal combustion engined cars. At least with EV, every manufacturer is starting anew – so the playing field is still fairly level. Our national car manufacturers stand a better chance in exporting their products if they are EVs. They also get a chance to innovate.
Bottom line is that our national car manufacturers need to start making cars in millions rather than thousands. To do that, they cannot just be jaguh kampungs. They also need to export. So they need to achieve product excellence. It is not an impossible target – afterall they already have decades of experience.
Geely is a newer car company compared to Proton. Yet Geely has achieved a lot more than Proton. Its time our national car manufacturers step up and become more relevant in world markets if they want to be treated seriously.
Funny how your last point was answered by your first point. Going in circles?
Proton and Perodua? Are they Really our national brands?
They are just from China and Japan not ours.
Geely and Daihatsu are just interested in selling their car here, sucking your ringgit, never helping Malaysian tech. Is there any Malaysian’s contribution when they develop and create their recent models? X50? X70? Ativa? No just change their badges. Haha Malaysia is just industrial colony, car sale market place of China and Japan. I am sure Malaysian’s auto industry will be doomed scooping your tax and ringgit to China and Japan
Remember when they said after the last election, car prices cut straight? Rubbish.
Doesn’t matter which government rules now, all bullshit. No idea why the goverment still protecting Proton and Perodua with excessive taxes even after Geely took over Proton. Thanks to these policies, companies choose to invest in our neighbours instead.
Remove or at least reduce the additional taxes by 50% instead, and don’t subsidize the fuel price.
If the staff at Proton and Perodua had any skillset, they’d survive even if Proton and Perodua close down. Other companies will set up their factories here and they’d be able to work there.
The whole MAA top brass should be fired, all makan gaji just running their mouth.