Malaysia’s largest car distributor Edaran Otomobil Nasional Bhd (EON) aims to match last year’s 127,859 unit sales in 2003, EON chief Adzmi Abdul Wahab said on Monday, according to Reuters.
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EON is one of the two distributors of the Proton, the other being Proton’s wholly owned unit, Proton Edar, Reuters noted.
“We hope to maintain the current volume,” the EON managing director told reporters, according to Reuters. “For this year, you can see that the economy is improving compared to last year’s. But we have to work harder.”
The government has forecast full-year 2002 gross domestic product growth at 4% to 5 percent, rising to 6% to 6.5% in 2003, Reuters said.
According to Reuters, EON said its 2002 sales were down 5.7% from 2001 due to tougher competition in the industry. Car sellers have used a variety of finance packages to attract buyers, including long repayment periods for loans.
Reuters noted that the national car Proton is Malaysia’s top-selling car brand, with about 60% of a market protected from foreign brands by import tariffs and discriminatory excise duties.
But a market liberalisation scheduled for 2005, when the government must drop high tariffs on cars made in countries within the Association of South East Asian Nations, means that Proton could struggle to compete with cheaper foreign models, Reuters added.
However, Reuters added, the government dropped a bombshell last November telling Malaysians looking at cheaper cars that new taxes, which apply to both Proton and otherr brands, could replace existing tariffs from January 1, 2005.
