The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) today published its latest forecasted total industry volume (TIV) figures for 2023, which has now risen to 652,500 passenger cars and 72,500 commercial vehicles, for a total of 725,000 units this year.
The new figure represents a significant increase of 11.5% over its original forecast of 650,000 total vehicles, which it published in January this year, and also represents a slight jump of 4,342 units over last year’s actual TIV.
In a press conference today, MAA said that the revised forecast was made on the basis of a stabilised economic outlook for the nation, improved automotive supply chain, as well as healthy sales figures for many new models – particularly “very affordable models” by national makes, among other factors.
The latter has already resulted in a 10.3% year-on-year increase in TIV for the first half of 2023, which saw a total of 366,037 units sold (326,661 passenger vehicles, up 11.2%; 39,376 commercial vehicles, up 3.6%). Among those, the national carmakers’ sales totalled 220,702 units, representing a 19% year-on-year increase in sales, while non-national makes dropped 3% to 105,959 units.
As a result, the national brands now constitute approximately 68% of the total passenger vehicles market share in the first half of 2023.
MAA added that sales of new vehicles has not only returned to, but also surpassed the pre-pandemic levels. For the first half of 2023, this was primarily driven by the fulfilment of bookings received during the PENJANA sales tax exemption period last year, where “a majority” of which were registered before 31 March 2023.
This is evidenced in the monthly sales figures, which saw a peak in March. At 78,894 units delivered, the March 2023 sales figures also marked a new all-time high record for monthly TIV in the history of the local automotive industry.
In tandem with the increased sales, the Total Industry Production (TIP) of new locally assembled vehicles in 1H2023 has also increased by 44,602 units (14%) to 362,535 units, compared to 317,933 units in the same period last year.
The strong sales in the first half of 2023 rides off the back of the nation’s all-time-high record for annual TIV 2022, which saw a monumental 41.6% increase in sales to 720,658 units sold throughout the nation last year.
Moving forward, however, MAA is expecting a slight shrinkage in TIV for 2024 at 700,000 units, before rising gradually to 736,300 in 2027.
