Proton remains on an upward sales trajectory, continuing the trend of the first 6 months of 2023. With 13,326 units (domestic + export) delivered in July, the volume is a 16.1% improvement over that of the same month in 2022. The market share for the month is estimated at 20.5%.
Faster growth in 2023
With the inclusion of the July volume, cumulative sales for 2023 have reached 90,647 units. This is the earliest month that the carmaker has reached the 90,000 unit level since 2012. And compared to the same period in 2022, the cumulative volume for 7 months is 26.6% higher while the market share is estimated to be 21%.
The growing sales of Proton mirror the trend in the Malaysian car market as the Total Industry Volume (TIV) is estimated to be 64,864 units for July. This represents a 29.9% increase over the same month in 2022, which would take the 7-month cumulative volume 12.9% above that for 2022.
Given Proton’s improvement of 26.6% for the same period, the brand would therefore being doing better than the industry by 14%.
X90 dominates SUV D-segment
Despite having less than 3 full months of being on sale since its launch on May 7, the third model in Proton’s SUV range has already moved into overall sales leadership in its segment. During July, 886 units of the X90 were delivered to bring the cumulative total to 2,225 units in just 86 days.
Along with the X90, Proton says that three other models are also sales leaders in their respective segments after 7 months. These are the Persona (B-segment), X50 (B-segment SUV) and Exora (C-segment SUV).
The evergreen Saga, which celebrated its 38th anniversary last month, remains a popular choice too. 5,926 units were delivered in July, an increase of 40.2% over the volume in 2022, to reach a cumulative volume of 39,251 units.
“Automotive sales in Malaysia continue to be strong in 2023 with no drop-off in demand four months after the expiry of the deadline to deliver cars under the PENJANA incentive scheme. There has been a raft of new model introductions this year and this, together with the high-profile announcements made in the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) space, as well as the government support to attracting new brands to the country has kept buyer interest high,” said Roslan Abdullah, CEO of Proton Edar.
“Proton of course has played a role in the increase of TIV. In terms of percentages, our growth in sales is more than double of the industry thus far and this can be attributed to car buyers being attracted to the technology, quality, safety, and value offered by our model range,” he added.
“With the Proton X90 already leading its class after just 3 months, new model launches on the horizon and the company’s impending entry into the EV market in 2023 (via smart Malaysia), we are confident of hitting our year-end targets,” Encik Roslan said.
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