October 2018 New Vehicle Sales – Returned To Normal Level

After the meagre performance of September, new vehicle sales in Malaysia have returned to a normal level of over 40,000 units for the month of October.

Data collated by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) revealed that the Total Industry Volume (TIV) in October 2018 hit 47,273 units. The TIV up to October 2018 is thus 502,244 units, which is over 29,500 units more (or 6.2%) than the same period last year.

While the new sales tax structure resulted in lower vehicle prices (compared to GST era), many automotive companies offered plenty of promotions to keep consumers interested in new vehicle purchases.

Further to add, some companies such as Mazda absorbed the increase in price during deliveries of new vehicles that were booked during the three-month zero GST.

Thanks to the resumption of Perodua Myvi production, which was zero units in September, the company manage to shift a total of 19,528 units (Myvi, Axia, Bezza, and Axia) in October.

The total production output in October also returns to the 50,000 units-level, a rare occurrence during the tail end of the year.

Mazda meanwhile is on course to achieve another strong year, as sales in the first ten months of 2018 have reached 12,698 units, surpassing their 2016 total annual sales of 12,493. The company achieved their best annual sales in 2015 with over 14,000 units delivered to customers.

Strong deliveries (755 units) of the Nissan Serena and Grand Livina saw the make overtake Honda BR-V (734 units) in the MPV segment. Toyota with the Innova and Sienta models meanwhile managed to register total sales of 778 units.

The MAA has reiterated that the TIV for 2018 will be 585,000 units. The figure is well within the range given that an average monthly sales of 41,400 units is not too challenging now.