Proton sales up 118% since 2018 – 5,100 average SUV sales per month



Proton’s recent success has been quite obvious, even by just a glance on the road. We may have become quite desensitised to their monthly sales report, but when you view Proton’s achievements over a longer period, they actually look mighty impressive.

In a recent business briefing event, Proton shared that it has achieved a record growth of 115% since 2018, jumping from 63,556 units sold per year, all the way up to 136,026 units in 2022. And that’s made even more remarkable, when you consider that a majority of these were during Covid-19 lockdown times.

The incredible jump in sales performance, of course, comes down primarily to the new SUV models – X70 and X50 – which made their debut in December 2018 and October 2020 respectively.

In fact, Proton says that they are delivering 5,100 SUVs per month on average, made up by 2,000 units of the X70, and 3,100 X50s. To date, there are already over 158,000 Proton SUV owners on the roads.

WATCH: 2022 Proton X70 1.5TGDi Premium 2WD review – 3-cylinder brilliance?

But the annual sales growths were not just due to the SUVs. Over the last five years, Proton has also completely revamped its bread-and-butter PIES (Persona, Iriz, Exora, Saga) model line-up, and each one of them have also seen commendable improvements in their average monthly sales figures.

One standout in particular is the Proton Saga, which saw a 148% jump in terms of average monthly sales figures, from 2,349 units in 2018, to 5,834 units from 2019-2022. The Proton Saga was last updated in mid-2022 with several creature comfort additions, and has since raked up a large amount of orders for the national carmaker, regularly ranking as the top seller in its segment.

ALSO WATCH: 2022 Proton Saga 1.3 Premium S review – redefining the National car

The national carmaker has ambitious plans moving forward, including an EV roadmap that starts with the mild-hybrid-powered Proton X90 this year. The PIES models will also see continuous updates with new powertrains, while the company also looks to aggressively expand its export sales, starting with the reentry to the two largest markets in ASEAN, Indonesia and Thailand.

By 2027, Proton aims to become the leading car brand in passenger vehicles in Malaysia, and top-3 within ASEAN. That’s a tall order, but the national carmaker seems to already have a plan on how to achieve it.