PETALING JAYA, July 20 — Sales of new motor vehicles continued to grow strongly in the first half (1H) of 2023, with total industry volume (TIV) rising by 10.3 per cent to 366,037 units from the 331,746 units recorded in the same period last year, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) said.
Its president Mohd Shamsor Mohd Zain said the new vehicles market has not only returned to pre-pandemic levels but even surpasses the pre-pandemic levels, rebounding strongly last year and again during the first half of 2023.
During the MAA press conference on the 1H 2023 automotive industry’s performance today, he said the industry was able to maintain its growth trajectory for 1H 2023 driven by the fulfilment of bookings received during the Penjana sales tax exemption period last year, a majority of which were registered before March 31, 2023.
The positive performance was also supported by robust sales driven mainly by national makes, resilient domestic economy, new model launches, and improved industry supply chain environment.
“Sales of new passenger vehicles rose 11.2 per cent to 326,661 units in 1H 2023 while new commercial vehicles were up by 3.6 per cent at 39,376 units,” Mohd Shamsor said.
Based on the positive indicators, the association has also revised upward its TIV forecast for 2023 to 725,000 units, from 650,000 units earlier.
He said the upward revision was also fuelled by MAA members’ continuation of aggressive promotional strategies and providing value-added services and more options to customers to improve demand, further improvement in the automotive industry supply chain environment, as well as Bank Negara’s decision to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 3.0 per cent at its May 2023 Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
For the next five years until 2027, the TIV is expected to remain above 700,000 units
For the six months period, Mohd Shamsor said both passenger and commercial vehicle TIV recorded an increase of 11.2 and 3.6 per cent to 326,661 and 39,376 units respectively compared to the same period last year.
“Robust sales by the two national makes contributed much towards this higher TIV of 1H 2023. During the first six months of the year, the national car sales totalled 220,702 units, a 19 per cent year-on-year increase. In contrast, non-national passenger vehicle sales dropped 3.0 per cent to 105,959 units.
“As a result, the national makes now constitute approximately 68 per cent of the total passenger vehicles market share during the 1H 2023. In 1H 2022, the share of national makes was approximately 63 per cent of the total passenger vehicles market,” he said.
For the 1H 2023, Mohd Shamsor said total industry production grew by 14 per cent to 362,535 units compared to 317,933 recorded in the first half of 2022.
For June 2023, TIV slipped by 2.0 per cent to 62,569 units compared to 63,631 units recorded in the same month last year while production eased by 3.0 per cent to 58,051 units from 59,885 units previously.
On electric vehicles (EVs), he said the EV infrastructure needs to be properly laid out, such as increasing the number of charging stations, before the association can comment or begin strategic planning concerning EVs.
“The EV is the way to go in the future. But, as I said, the infrastructure needs to come in before that,” Mohd Shamsor said, while acknowledging the government’s efforts to have more EV charging stations in the future.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz has said the government needs to look into installing more charging stations to expand the country’s EV ecosystem.
In a video shared on Twitter today, he said EV carmaker Tesla has given its commitment to help the government meet its target of achieving 10,000 charging stations by 2025.
The installation of more charging stations is an aspect that needs to be looked into in the effort to expand the country’s EV ecosystem.
“Tesla is required to install at least 50 superchargers by 2026, of which 30 per cent must be open to other EV brands. This means that all EV owners will benefit. This is a good move to promote the overall usage of EVs,” the minister said.
— Bernama
