We called the sales data breakdown by brand in previous months collector’s items, because they were unseen before. Well, here’s another one for the album. “August 2021 Malaysian vehicle sales up by 147%” may seem a bit tame in the crazy Covid context, but don’t judge this story by its headline.
In July, Proton made a one-off appearance at the top of the table, ahead of Toyota and Mitsubishi, with the latter registering more cars than perennial leader Perodua (fourth) and defending non-national leader Honda (fifth). Those who did well had remaining stock; conversely, those who didn’t fare well had no cars to sell as factories were forced to close.
With plants and showrooms allowed to resume operations in mid-August, sales numbers have shot up fast due to the backlog. Cars are finally being made and registered, giving both car companies and customers a sigh of relief. Is the worst over for the Malaysian car industry? Seems so for the near future.
After lending its top spot to Proton for a month, Perodua is back with sales of nearly 7k units in August, a 966.9% increase. That’s not a typo, and P2 has passed the 100k mark in the process (year-to-date 104,933 units). Earlier this month, Perodua announced a revised 2021 sales target of 214,000 units, 10.8% less than the original 240k. Proton is up 44% and lies second in both August (2,741) and YTD (60,997) figures.
Other big jumpers are Toyota (+72.2%), Honda (+140.5%), Mazda (+251.5%), Nissan (+118.7%), Volkswagen (+108.0%) and wait for it, Porsche with +258.1%. Once again, this is all down to stock being available again, and how much of it one has – we can’t read too much into it. Curiously, Toyota sold fewer commercial vehicles in August versus July. Same for Isuzu, which only sells CVs.
Here’s a YTD update on the individual battles that we’ve been following. Toyota’s lead over Honda has widened and is now above 10k. Barring any unforeseen incidents, the big T would surely achieve its stated mission of regaining the No.1 non-national spot from Honda come year end.
The surprise package of 2021 so far has been Mitsubishi, which is sitting comfortably in fifth and pulling away from Nissan and Mazda in the “best of the rest” race after Perodua, Proton, Toyota and Honda. Boosted by a wingman in the Xpander seven-seater, the Triton brand has been setting personal bests, and is on track for its strongest year.
Speaking of Nissan and Mazda, the Yokohama carmaker has traditionally been in fifth and ahead of its Hiroshima-based compatriot. But Nissan was merely eighth in August sales – it’s still sixth in YTD figures, but the lead over Mazda is now razor thin at 86 units (from 356 units in July).
With four more months of SST exemption to go, there’s still time for a late push. For the state of affairs at half time, check out our 1H 2021 report here.
The post Malaysian vehicle sales for August 2021 by brand – Perodua up 967%, Toyota widens lead over Honda appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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