In a statement today, the national carmaker said it is the only top-five-ranked brand to grow sales in April, thus, bringing its total sales for the first four months to 49,702 units or a growth of 39.8% over the same period last year.
It said Proton’s market share for the month was estimated to be 20.4%, maintaining the second place in the national automotive sales table.
“Overall, sales in April receded by over 41.4% after the new record high set in March as total industry volume (TIV) is estimated to stand at 46,203 units,” it said.
The carmaker said the decrease in sales was a result of not only the holiday period but also the ending of deliveries for orders placed during the Penjana tax-free incentive scheme.
“Due to the Hari Raya holidays affecting production and sales activities for the entire automotive industry as well as the expiry of the grace period for orders received during the tax-free period, we had forecast April to close with lower sales numbers,” deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah said.
Proton’s best seller
Proton said the X50 model remained the best-selling B-segment sport utility vehicle (SUV) with 2,644 units delivered in April and Persona retained overall leadership for the B-segment sedan market with 1,263 deliveries.
It said Exora had its best sales month of the year with 465 units sold, helping the model to retain sales leadership for C-segment multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) with 1,559 units sold to date.
The Saga still leads all models for sales with 3,949 units delivered, bringing total sales for 2023 up to 21,395 units and placing it second for A-segment sedan sales.
The carmaker said the sales of X70 and Iriz for April stood at 756 units and 338 units, respectively.
Meanwhile, it said April was its best month for export sales with just 187 units shipped to overseas markets, adding to the total export sales for the first four months of the year at a dismal 603 units.
“Proton’s export volume for 2023 has been slow to reach the expected volume due to several external global economic factors.
“However, we remain positive about our overseas sales prospects this year and are actively working with our partners to raise the profile of the brand as well as promote our intelligent products,” Roslan added.