KUALA LUMPUR: Perodua says it is maintaining its 247,000 sales target for this year based on numerous supporting factors.
On a month-on-month comparison, the automaker posted 61,624 vehicles registered in Q1 of 2022, which is an increase of 6.4 per cent from 57,909 vehicles sold between January and March of 2021.
It registered 26,759 vehicles in March 2022 which is a 9.5pct increase from 24,433 units sold in March 2021.
The figure is also a 53.2pct sales jump from a month before with Feb registering 17,421 units.
Perodua president and chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad attributed the healthy increase to Perodua's work with its suppliers and dealers to lessen their impact of the Covid-19 situation and the present component supply issues.
"While semiconductor chip supply and Covid-19 would still influence production, we expect that production and registration will continue to improve. We do not foresee other factors such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to have a major impact on Perodua's production moving forward," he added.
Zainal hopes the positive outlook will convince the government to consider extending the sales tax exemption initiative beyond the June 30 deadline given the benefits it presents to the local automotive sector.
He added that the automotive industry, including its local ecosystem, thank the government for the initiative as it was able to keep demand high and sustain the industry throughout the worst of the pandemic.
"That being said, Perodua also echoes the Malaysia Automotive Association's (MAA) request to further extend the sales tax exemption as factors such as the global semiconductor supply disruption and Covid-19 cases are still impacting the industry.
"The local automotive ecosystem is starting to recover right now and an extension in the sales tax exemption is what the industry needs for sustained growth during this recovery period," he added.
Zainal said Perodua was currently focusing on expediting its vehicles delivery to its customers before the sales tax exemption deadline.
"We foresee the second quarter of 2022 to be the highlight for the automotive industry moving forward as brands will deliver as many vehicles as they can within that three-month period," he said.
Perodua's highest monthly sales achievement was recorded in October 2021 with 27,858 units registered.