Sales of passenger vehicles increased by 10.1% year-on-year to 47,754 units last month, while commercial vehicles sales were 1.8% lower at 4,830 units.
Over the full year, total vehicle sales were higher by just under 1% at 604,287 units compared with 598,714 units in 2018.
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Passenger vehicles sales rose by 3.2% to 531,759 units, driven by strong demand for SUVs following the recent launch of new models by Proton and Perodua, while commercial vehicles sales declined by over 17% to 72,528 units – mainly reflecting lower international trade volume.
The MAA forecast a further moderate rise in total vehicle sales this year to 607,000 units.
Association president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said a new National Automotive Policy (NAP) was expected to be announced in the current quarter, which will include provisions to change the calculation method of the Open Market Value (OMV) of vehicles – upon which local taxes are calculated, and further changes to import duties and excise tax rates.
The changes are expected to be applied in 2021 and are widely expected to have a negative effect on the vehicle market, particularly on non-national car models including imported vehicles and models imported in CKD kit form for local assembly.
Proton said its sales, including exports, rose by almost 56% to 100,821 units last year from 64,744 units in the previous year, helped by the launch of the Geely-based X70 SUV at the end of 2018 and the new Saga small car.
The company expected global sales this year to rise to 132,000 units, including 4,000-6,000 exports compared with just 1,070 units in 2019. It aims to increase the number of export markets to 10 this year from six.
Perodua reported a 5.8% rise in sales to 240,341 units in 2019 and expected volume to be flat in 2020 while Honda sales amounted to 85,418 units last year, Toyota 69,091 units and Nissan 21,239 units.
