Affected By The Movement Control Order 2.0, Proton’s Car Sales Have Dropped

The Movement Control Order 2.0 (MCO 2.0) has affected the major automotive players in many ways. In Proton’s case, they had experienced a decreased in their car sales for January 2021, mainly due to its supply not being able to meet demand rather than a reduction in bookings.

Overall, for January 2021, Proton ranked second by delivering a total of 5,964 units, 29 percent decreased compared to the same period last year. It has an estimated market share of 18.5 percent which is about one percent less than the same period last year.

Proton Edar chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said, “January was a difficult month for Malaysia’s automotive industry. Hopes were high with the momentum built at the end of 2020 but unfortunately the second MCO announcement put a damper on those hopes.”

However, Proton’s product orders remained strong with bookings that has been carried over from the end of last year. Despite the MCO’s impact on the production volume, the company is still hard at work in acquiring supplies to catch up to the demands.

“The MCO have affected the numbers of customers coming to showrooms, but we can still receive bookings online helping to boost our sales. With our supply lines have been disrupted over the last few months by the coronavirus making it difficult to ensure a steady flow of parts needed to build our cars”, said Roslan.

Below is the breakdown of Proton January 2021 – Individual Units Sold:

- Proton Saga: 2,583 units 

- Proton X50: 1,082 units 

- Proton Persona: 970 units 

- Proton X70: 892 units  

- Proton Iriz: 283 units 

- Proton Exora: 153 units  

He further added, “For now, Proton will stick to its 2021 product launch schedule as we have an exciting series of improved products in the pipeline. There will undoubtedly be more challenges ahead but we are aware this is now the new norm for doing business and the onus is on us to innovate our operations to better serve our customers.”