Malaysia H1 2023: Perodua #1, Proton up 32.4%

The Proton X50 is a rebadged Geely Coolray.

The Malaysian new car market gains 10.3% year-on-year to 366,037 units. Note 2022 was a record year in the country with 720,658 sales, up 41.6% on the year prior. According to local manufacturers association MAA, the robustness of the automobile sector in 2023, led by national brands (67.6% of the market vs. 32.4 for foreigners) is linked to many factors. These include the fulfilment of bookings received during the PENJANA sales tax exemption period last year, a majority of which were registered before 31 March 2023, resilient domestic economy (the GDP expanded by 5.6% in Q1 2023), new model launches with many attractive features and design, and very competitive prices and improved industry supply chain environment.

Passenger Cars are up 10.6% to 203,956, MPVs up 93.4% to 33,437, SUVs up 10.5% to 101,779 and pickup trucks down -11.3% to 12,210. Looking at sales month by month, January was up 20.8% to 50,162, February up 41% to 63,544, March up 7.7% to 78,894 – a new record for monthly sales, April down -17.1% to 47,765, May up 24.6% to 63,103 and June down -1.7% to 62,569.

We now have access to a Top 5 brands for the period. Perodua improves 13.6% to 39.5% share vs. 38.4% over the same period in 2022, Proton (+32.4%) signs the largest gain in the Top 5 to 20.8% share vs. 17.3% a year ago, while Toyota (-5.9%), Honda (-15%) and Mitsubishi (-6.4%) all underperform with negative scores. 

Full H1 2023 Top 5 best-selling brands below.