Malaysia November 2014: Toyota overtakes Proton for 1st time

Perodua Axia Advance and Standard G

* See the Top 50 All-brands ranking by clicking on the title *

New car sales in Malaysia are up an encouraging 6% year-on-year in November to 55,309 deliveries, bringing the year-to-date total to 601,801 units, up 1% on 2013. Below the traditional leader Perodua once again over-performing at 33.5% share vs. 29.3% year-to-date, a very significant position swap occurs in 2nd place: for the first time since BSCB started following the Malaysian market a decade ago, Toyota overtakes local manufacturer Proton with 8,394 deliveries and 15.2% share vs. 8,203 and 14.8%. This change is more due to a particular weakness of Proton this month (3 percentage points below its YTD market share of 17.8%) rather than a surge from Toyota though (YTD market share at 15.1%).

The Iriz’s struggles mean Proton is below Toyota at home this month.

A possible explanation for this spectacular evolution is the particularly successful launch of the Perodua Axia, a rebadged Toyota Agya/Daihatsu Ayla whereas the distinctly more attractive all-new Proton Iriz seems to be having having teething problems. As at end October, bookings for the Perodua Axia had reached a massive 42,000 units, with 8,000 cars already delivered to customers since the launch in September. It is Malaysia’s most affordable car and first Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV), priced from RM24,600 to RM42,530 (US$7.100-12.200). Further down the brands ranking, Isuzu confirms its great form at #6 and 2.1% share vs. #9 and 1.7% YTD, Mercedes ranks #11 vs. #14 YTD and Jaguar jumps 567% on October to #35 and 20 sales compared to 24 so far this year.

Previous month: Malaysia October 2014: Axia lifts Perodua up to 32.6% share

One year ago: Malaysia November 2013: Market down 3%

Full November 2014 Top 50 brands Ranking Table below.