TOKYO: Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) may record higher sales in the fourth quarter of this year than the third quarter, due to new initiatives and a possible launch of a brand new car soon.
The national carmaker expects to achieve its sales target of 202,000 units for this year after selling 151,600 units in its first nine months ended September 30.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said Perodua could introduce a brand new car in the upcoming months and had planned other new initiatives to boost sales of its existing vehicles.
“The fourth quarter is expected to be challenging but we believe that we can sustain our sales momentum and are cautiously optimistc about meeting our earlier set target by end of this year,” he told the Malaysian media on the sidelines of the Tokyo Motor Show, here.
For the third quarter, Perodua’s sales slowed slightly by three per cent to 51,900 units against 53,500 units registered in the same period a year ago.
“The larger sales number in the third quarter last year was due to the launch of Perodua Bezza on July 21 2016.
“The impact has normalised now and our sales have benefitted from Bezza’s introduction,” said Aminar Rashid.
“There seems to be a wait-and- see attitude this month resulting in slow sales not just for Perodua, but also the whole industry,” he added.
Perodua produced 147,900 vehicles in the first nine months of the year, a reduction of 3.8 per cent from 153,700 units produced in the same period last year.
Aminar Rashid said the reduction was planned in response to the higher currency exchange rate in the first quarter.
All Perodua models were the best-seller in their respective categories, he added.
From January to September, Axia is the country’s best selling A-segment compact hatch with 48,700 units sold, followed by Myvi which was the best-selling B-segment hatch with 42,000 units sold.
Bezza was the best-selling compact A-segment sedan with 39,800 units sold and Alza was the best-selling multi-purpose vehicle with 21,400 units taken up.
Moving forward, Aminar Rashid said Perodua was looking to gradually increase its exports, with the Organisation of Islamic Countries and Asean being the new target markets.
He added that this year the carmaker expects to exports around 5,000 units, similar to last year. The nine-month period saw higher exports for the Perodua batch than that of Daihatsu.