New Vehicle Sales Data As Of Feb 2021 Showing Signs Of Growth

The latest new vehicle sales data, ended February 2021, is showing positive signs of growth, indicating a trend of stabilisation in the passenger and commercial vehicle segment. According to Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) data – the figures in February show a small but crucial improvement over the same period in 2020, though from a Year-To-Date (YTD), there’s catching up to do after a slow month in January.

In February 2021 – overall car sales were 30 percent higher than in January 2021, closing with 37,923 units representing a small incremental growth of approximately 1 percent from the 37,359 units sold in February 2020 (before the first MCO started). Commercial vehicles showed a more sizeable bump of 1.3 percent to 4,861 units, versus February 2020's 3,728 unit total.

However, the sales of passenger vehicles still trail by 0.87 percent in 2021 in YTD figures after slow sales in January. Commercial vehicles though showed an improvement of 1.21 percent in YTD data 8,818 units versus 7,260 units last year.

According to MAA - traffic volume to showrooms showed much improvement after the lifting of the MCO in certain states.

It’s much the same within terms of production volume; again a small incremental growth of 45,199 units in February 2021, versus 40,371 units in the same month last year.

MAA states that sales volume in March 2021 is expected to be higher than February 2021 on the backs of marketing campaigns hosted by all major manufacturers, the easing of the MCO, and resumption of JPJ's full services for all types of vehicle transactions. MAA has forecasted a Total Industry Volume (TIV) of 570,000 for 2021, which presumes a bullish growth rate of 8 percent over the 529,434 unit total of 2020.

MAA’s forecasts are based on the strong trend of promotional campaigns and the PENJANA stimulus package which exempts SST till the end of June 2021.