Speak to used car dealers and you might hear that sales of second-hand cars have slowed and inventory isn’t moving as fast as they’d like. Car brands that accept trade-ins from buyers to push their new cars might be facing the same issues as well, and Perodua has such a division called Pre-Owned Vehicles (POV).
Affordable Peroduas are some of the hottest commodities in the Malaysian used car market, but even P2 can do with better outflow. The solution? Exporting used cars. Yes, your used Perodua Ativa or Aruz could go on to have a second life in South Asia and even Africa!
“We’ve started exporting used cars to other countries. We’ve started with Bangladesh and we’re studying Kenya and Mozambique and other countries as the next markets,” Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad told us on the sidelines of the 2025 Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo.
“This is to make sure that used Peroduas can be channelled to other countries and at the same time new cars can be sold. This will help the car density in Malaysia, so that it’s not too saturated and the total industry volume (TIV, or new car sales) can be maintained,” he explained.
If you don’t already know, Malaysia’s car penetration rate or vehicles per capita is among the highest in the world. Despite the saturation, TIV is growing. We’re a smaller country than Thailand, but our vehicle sales overtook the ‘Detroit of the East’ in 2023, and the narrow margin became huge in 2024. In fact, Malaysia’s record TIV of 816,747 units last year came very close to Indonesia’s, and that’s a country of nearly 300 million people!
Market leader Perodua is also flying. Last year’s 358,102 units was an all-time high for the company, surpassing the previous benchmark of 330,325 units, recorded just in 2023.
This used car export plan has been in the making, and Zainal first broached the subject in 2021. “Based on our long term plan for second-hand cars, there are so many used cars in Malaysia. One of our strategy is we’re looking at options, whether we can export these used cars to other countries that require cars.
“As we speak, we have our team now studying in one of the countries, which I cannot announce now. They are doing feasibility studies and we’ve sent a few cars over there for them to do market survey, pricing acceptance and so on,” the P2 chief told us then.
If the export of used cars sounds strange, it’s actually rather common. For example, Japan exports plenty of used cars worldwide, and Malaysia is one of the major destinations. While our recond cars from Japan and UK consists mostly of luxury MPVs/SUVs and sports/performance models with low mileage, there are other countries that bulk import regular, non-luxury/enthusiast JDM cars. For instance, there are plenty of ‘normal’ used JDM cars all over New Zealand, used as daily tools in lieu of official imports from authorised distributors.
Demand for the used Peroduas has been pretty good, we’re told. Perhaps it’s due to the reputation of Japanese reliability. Also, many Bangladesh nationals might be familiar with Perodua cars, as they are ubiquitous in Malaysia.
Nothing significant on the new car export front, as Perodua generally sells whatever it can make locally. But there was a recent moment of pride. “Lately, we’ve been exporting the Bezza to Papua New Guinea. The Bezza is being used as a police car there, and it was also used in their national day celebrations. That’s something to be very proud of – countries like Papua New Guinea accept Perodua as a trusted brand,” Zainal shared.
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P2 boleh jual oversea juga ya… hmm
We’re going to do what other more advanced countries are doing to us, exporting crappy recond cars at a higher price to lesser countries.
At least Toyota maa, can run for-eeeever
T20 in kenya and mozambique have the same mentality thinking same as T20 in malaysia
Malaysians like to take 9 year loan and keep their cars between 7 to 9 years. that’s why their entire life will be paying for car loans.
Very interesting. Very sustainable. of course Perodua is making money. Their regular new cars here are grossly overpriced, myvi Alza etc should max out at 55k but are hitting 65k. They and gomen are exploiting the b40 with these prices, b40 are spending 30% of income on cars but i only spend 10% on my Merc
Used Perodua still way better than brand new Proton.
yeah now we know why perodua retains strong resale value its because of strong demand from less developed nations