Perodua sees growth spurt

KUALA LUMPUR: Perodua is on track to achieve its target sales of 194,000 cars this year, following strong sales growth in the first four months of 2013.

The company's president and chief executive officer Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said about 64,400 Perodua cars were sold from January till end-April, which translated into a 9% year-on-year sales increase.

"Barring unforeseen circumstances, we are cautiously optimistic about achieving our 2013 sales target. The automotive market is still strong, and the country's total automotive industry volume (TIV) should hit 640,000 units this year, as per the forecast by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA)," said Aminar at the Royale Chulan Hotel.

Aminar (standing fourth from left) with Perodua management and representatives from the institutions of higher learning at the mock cheque presentation ceremony for the fifth edition of the Perodua Eco-Challenge.

Aminar was attending a mock cheque presentation ceremony for the fifth edition of the Perodua Eco-Challenge, where students from selected institutions of higher learning are challenged in applying their knowledge and skills in the arenas of automotive engineering and marketing.

Aminar noted that before the recently held General Election, car buyers had adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

In a statement, he also said Perodua had given its inputs for the revision of the National Automotive Policy (NAP) which is expected to be announced in the near future.

“As one of the largest local carmakers, Perodua sees great value in a gradual liberalisation and this will also help us in being prepared for when the market fully opens,” said Aminar.

According to Perodua, it has developed and given business opportunities to about 109 local vendors 272 local sales as well as service dealers and other service providers.

“The result of this extended eco-system - Perodua has sold some 2.2 million vehicles over our 20-year history,” said Aminar.

He added that local automotive vendors also benefit, as Perodua is buying RM4bil in parts this year.

On Perodua’s efforts to further reduce its prices, Aminar said that the recently launched S Series was a good example of how the company would bring down the cost of ownership for its customers.

“We are not only repositioning the price downwards, we added more features and give a three-year free service to not just the S-series but to all our models. The value we bring to the customers ranges from RM4,500 to RM5,600,” he said.

“We will continue to produce and market affordable vehicles with quality taking into consideration the total cost of ownership. Our most affordable variant is priced at RM25,000 - the lowest in the country,” said Aminar.

Meanwhile, the total prize money in the Perodua Eco-Challenge 2013 has been increased to RM127,000 compared with RM103,000 last year.

Institutions participating in this year's Eco-Challenge include Universiti Selangor, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Politeknik Ungku Omar.

Participating teams will need to redesign a Perodua Myvi, for body styling enhancements and better fuel efficiency.

The categories include "Long Distance", "Engineering", "Time Attack", "Marketing Challenge" and "Overall Champion".