The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has released vehicle sales date for the month of June 2021, announcing earlier today that a total of 1,921 vehicles were delivered last month. This is a drop of 45,283 units from the 47,204 units (revised upwards from the 46,663 units reported last month) sold in May, or a 96% reduction in volume.
Last month’s total was also a drop of 42,834 units (or 95.7%) from the corresponding month in 2020, when 44,755 units (originally, 44,695 units) were shifted. However, the year-to-date numbers for 2021 is still ahead of that last year, with the 249,129 units managed in the first half of this year being 75,584 units (43.6%) more than the 173,545 units that were recorded in the same period last year.
The massive plunge isn’t surprising, given that all car showrooms were closed when the country went into lockdown on June 1, and remain so in Phase One of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), with the exception of Sabah, where showrooms are now allowed to operate under Phase Two.
What is surprising is that there were sales, which the association said were spillover registrations from May. In this case, the situation is similar to that which occurred last year during the first movement control order (MCO) – it remains possible to register a car online during the lockdown, but the absence of sales activity means that the cars will not be able to be delivered.
In essence, these registrations were for vehicle purchases in which car loans had already been approved pre-lockdown and for which a Letter of Undertaking (LoU) had already been issued. The completion of the registration is so there will be no lapse in the agreement, which would entail needing to go through the whole process again.
With July almost over and showrooms still closed, the association expects that sales numbers this month will be minimal. Despite the sales tax exemption, which was supposed to have ended on June 30, having been extended to the end of the year, car registrations aren’t expected to swell tremendously even when showrooms open.
That’s because production has also been static as a result of assembly plants also being closed. Originally, they were scheduled to resume in Phase Two of the NRP, but according to the MAA during its 1H 2021 market review briefing earlier today, assembly plants are only set to reopen in Phase Three, so that could be a while away.
Indeed, with two months already lost at this stage, the race looks to be on to see if buyers from this point can get their orders fulfilled to take advantage of the SST savings before the year is out, especially for much-in-demand models such as the Perodua Ativa, Myvi and Proton X50, given that there is already a significant backlog in orders for these.
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Not surprising if car sales shoot up again once showrooms can reopen, but that goes to show the sales point of cars need to revamp and adapt to the internet age.
Expected la.
How to buy new cars these days? Salesroom tutup, cannot test drive, MCO, EMCO, ekonomi meleset, etc.
Unless you are bigshot MB, and wish to buy a Raptor.
So which car manufacturers able deliver 1841 cars?
Used car dealer
If car production can only resume in Phase 3 of NRP,with 10-15000 covid cases daily,the lockdown timeframe will extend close to November.
By that time,many car dealerships would have folded.
Many sales advisors would be selling nasi lemak instead of cars,by the roadside.
There must be a way out fast forward,in terms of faster vaccinations,n stricter enforcement of sops.
If not,we can celebrate Christmas this year with a skeleton handful of dealerships left.
Make no mistake,there will definitely not be a memorable new year countdown on 31 dec 2021.
This is YOUR comments is it not;
YB Albert on Jul 02, 2021 at 12:23 pm
The saddest reality is the real total lockdown should have been done in mid May.
Why the flipflop? Just stop. Grow up. Handling pandemic isn’t for kiddies that cannot comprehend the necessary actions taken here.
Sales personal, car dealer, workshop in the brink of collapse.