Since Proton forged its partnership with Geely, the national carmaker has achieved many significant milestones – including the launch of the brand’s first SUV, along with updated versions of four different models, as well as the launch of its new logo.
However, this achievement might be the sweetest yet – Proton has just announced that the brand has recorded a total sales figure of 100,821 units for the year of 2019, inclusive of both domestic and export sales. This marks the first time the brand has exceeded the 100,000 unit threshold since 2015.
The figure equates to an increase of 55.7% over 2018, giving Proton the highest sales growth in 2019 for the top-five automotive brands in Malaysia. Overall market share for the year is estimated to be at 16.7%, the highest for Proton since 2014.
Proton’s December sales figure was also the highest for the year, with a total of 11,117 units sold, a 112% growth from the same period last year. The figure translates to a 20.5% share of the Total Industrial Volume (TIV), and marks the first time the national carmaker has sold more than 11,000 cars a month since July 2014.
The main contributor for Proton’s successful year is the Proton Saga, having sold a total of 38,144 units for the year – of which 3,892 units was sold in December alone. The Proton X70 was the second best-seller of the brand, closing the year at 26,311 units sold. The Proton Persona also achieved positive sales performance, with 21,876 units sold in 2019.
While no specific figures were provided for the Iriz and Exora, Proton says that the sales of the Iriz has nearly doubled for the year at 97%. The Exora recorded a sales growth of 40% from the previous year, as a result of the launch of the updated model in May 2019.
While Proton has launched four products in the past year, which is unprecedented in the brand’s history, the national carmaker has also been focusing on improving the quality of its products. According to Proton CEO Dr. Li Chunrong, “[Proton’s] internal quality audit GCPA score is 1190 points, an improvement of over six times compared to 2017 when we first started using the measurement. This is also a better quality score than Geely currently has, proving the success of our efforts.”
