Perodua Q1 2021 sales increase 29% to almost 58k – 4,345 units of the Ativa delivered in less than a month

Today is the first day of the second quarter of the year, and Perodua has wasted no time in announcing its Q1 2021 sales results. The market leader sold 57,911 vehicles in the Q1, 29% more than the first quarter of last year (44,977). Of course, this includes contribution from the new Ativa SUV, which was officially launched on March 3.

With the Ativa onboard, Perodua’s month-on-month registrations jumped by 47.3% to 24,433 units in March compared to February’s 16,583 units.

“March saw a jump in our sales numbers to an estimated 24,433 units, underpinned by strong demand, particularly for the Ativa, which has collected 14,574 bookings since we began order-taking on February 19,” said Perodua president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad, who added that 4,345 units of the SUV were delivered in less than 30 days.

For context, the Proton X50 was launched in late October 2020, and by end February 2021 (four months), the company had delivered 8,141 units of the SUV. Of that total, 3,345 units were delivered in February.

“This makes the Ativa the best-selling compact SUV in the country in the month of March. We are glad that the Ativa has gotten off to such a strong start, and that we well surpassed our 3,000-unit monthly delivery target in the first month,” he added. The P2 chief said that at present, Ativa demand is skewed 67% towards the range-topping AV, which is within Perodua’s projections.

As for production, the Rawang carmaker rolled out 60,383 vehicles in Q1 2021, a 23% year-on-year increase. “For now, our biggest challenge is the semiconductor chip shortage, which is having varying impacts on carmakers on a global scale. We are working with our partners to find alternative supply while at the same time monitoring the situation on a daily basis to ensure continued operation of our production lines,” Zainal Abidin said.

Despite the global chip shortage issue, Perodua will still be able to meet its initial 2021 sales target of 240,000 units, the company said. Announced earlier this year, that sales target is a 9% increase from the 220,163 units P2 sold in 2020.

Perodua is also anticipating a record purchase of RM6.5 billion worth of locally-sourced components this year, as it targets production of 272,000 units (+23%) and 2.4 million service intakes (+20%) this year.

GALLERY: Perodua Ativa AV