At a small media event held in the nation’s capital, Malaysian automotive heavyweight Perodua announced that it had performed splendidly over the first half of 2019, delivering the highest number of new cars yet for the manufacturer. This historic milestone was contributed to by the ‘tax holiday’ period that came about after the General Election, which served to grow the total industry volume (TIV) by some 2.4%.

Also contributing to Perodua’s successes was the arrival of the Perodua Aruz, the model’s first SUV since the ill-fated Nautica and warmly-received Kembara, which has served to breathe new light into the entry-level sub-RM100k SUV space. 

“The increase in demand for our vehicles in the first six months of 2019 has had a positive impact on the automotive ecosystem as a whole, with parts purchases amounting to RM2.7-billion during this period. Based on our forecast for the second half of the year, we expect to purchase a total of RM5.4-billion with of parts for the whole of 2019. We have reached a stage in our history where we are earnestly seeking to build our brand abroad in a sustainable manner. However, this is on a long-term scale as brands do need time to build. Our hope is to make Malaysia proud,” said Perodua President & CEO, Dato’ Zainal Abidin Ahmad.

As a result of the positive performance, Perodua will be revising its annual target – previously set at 231,000 vehicles, Perodua will now aim to sell 235,000 vehicles in 2019, marking a 4,000 unit increase over earlier estimates. 

When looking at the individual model breakdown, the Perodua Aruz looks to retain its position as Malaysia’s best-selling SUV, with 15,000 sales recorded in the first half of this year and “a few more thousand by the end of next month” according to Dato’ Zainal. The Perodua Alza at 8,000 units sold in the first-half of this year represents Perodua’s slowest-selling model, though it’s still not a number to be scoffed at. When asked, Perodua’s top-management unanimously answered that there’s been little cannibalisation between the two models, and whatever cross-shopping has occurred are perfectly within Perodua’s original estimates that they calculated prior to the release of the Aruz SUV. 

They would also not comment about a new Alza, which is heavily rumoured to come about late this year or early next year. To that end, Dato’ Zainal remained coy, but hinted that at “current capability,” the company is capable of producing “one minor model change and one full model change per year.” Based on that comment, you can extrapolate when we can expect to see the next new model from Perodua.

It isn’t all smooth sailing though – last year’s sales figures, Dato’ Zainal noted, were inflated somewhat thanks to that tax holiday we mentioned earlier. To that end, Dato’ Zainal said that they “believe that the second half of the year will not be as healthy as what was recorded last year. The momentum of the first half is likely to reduce in the second half.” 

Perodua forecasts internally that Malaysia’s total industry volume for 2019 will remain at 600,000 units, though the Malaysian Automotive Association’s official numbers have yet to be released.