As expected, the first quarter of this year will see a continued boom time for the car companies, at least in terms of deliveries. Many have thousands of orders waiting to be fulfilled and there’s an urgent need to deliver to customers who booked before June 30, 2022 because they are entitled to sales tax exemption.
If they do not have their new vehicle registered by March 31, 2023, then their sales tax exemption will be forfeited and they will have to pay more. However, some companies absorb the sales tax and Perodua is one of those that has confirmed it will do so for those customers whom it cannot supply vehicles to in time.
The Malaysian carmaker has also been in ‘overdrive’, along with its suppliers and dealers, during the first two months of this year. The total volume of vehicle delivered to customers nationwide was 46,385 units, up 33% from 34,865 units in the same period last year. Likewise for production, there was a 32.95% increase in out from the two plants to 51,134 units from 38,460 units last year.
The increases are attributed to improved efficiency in terms of production, better financing facilities to Perodua dealers and greater communications both within the ecosystem as well as with Perodua customers.
“While there are still ongoing challenges with the supply of semiconductor chips – cost increases among them – we managed to see double-digit growth in our production and sales. For this, we thank our partners for their dedication,” said Perodua President & CEO, Dato’ Sri Zainal Abidin Ahmad.
While the focus is on fulfilling outstanding orders, there are also new orders coming in daily, more so with the new Perodua Axia now in the market. Dato’ Sri Zainal said demand for Perodua vehicles has remained healthy so far and the company is ramping up production to meet with that demand.
“As a result, the average waiting period as of February 28 is now between 2.5 months and 8 months. Of course, this timeframe is subject to the model, variant, and colour,” Dato’ Sri Zainal said. “That being said, we apologise to our customers and thank them for their patience. We will try to further improve our production and deliveries in the months to come.”
Moving forward, Dato’ Sri Zainal said the outlook for the automotive industry and Perodua are positive given that the current economic situation remains stable. “The current focus now is labour stability, especially for the automotive suppliers to ensure that production can be improved. We also hope that the policy-makers continue to engage with the ecosystem on future changes in policies that may impact the industry” he said.
