RAWANG: Perodua has given an assurance that the prices of its vehicles will not be raised in the forseable future.
“For this to come true, we hope material prices and fuel prices remain manageable; at the same time, we also hope that foreign exchange and interest rates would be favourable to industry growth,” Perodua president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said in a statement.
He said that for now, if these factors remain within acceptable levels, Perodua would maintain its vehicle prices.
“For now, our priority is to deliver to those who booked their Perodua within the sales tax exemption period as the price for these vehicles will remain as per agreed until March 31, 2023 deadline,” Zainal said.
He said the Malaysian automotive industry was able to maximise its potential through shared responsibility in meeting customers’ expectations in many aspects last year, resulting in Perodua’s best performance on record so far.
“The industry did a lot soul searching and from the learning points obtained during the pandemic and we realised that we needed to take active steps to recover in 2021 – which saw its fair share of challenges and from there to maximise the ecosystem’s potential in 2022,” Zainal said.
Zainal.
Perodua's production rose by 49.5% to 289,054 units in 2022 when compared with 193,400 units in 2021; while sales saw an increase of 48.2% to 282,019 units against 190,291 vehicles registered in 2021.
Aftersales saw intakes grew to 2.6 million, which is a 30% increase from 2.0 million service intakes in 2021.
He said that as a result, 2022 proved to be the best year, so far, for the Malaysian automotive industry in general and Perodua in particular.
“This can be seen with our December 2022 production and sales performance, which averaged 1,000 vehicles made and registered per day,” Zainal said.
He also said 2022 also had its obstacles which included the ecosystem’s recovery from the massive flood, the shortage of workers due to spikes in Covid-19 cases at the supplier level, the shortage of semiconductor chip supply and the sudden increase in raw material prices.
He said that with proper planning, Perodua and its partners were not only able to overcome these challenges but find much needed growth for the industry.
“Our goal was to meet customers’ expectations of us– not just in terms of delivery of products and services but also in introducing greater value offerings to all Malaysians,” Zainal said.
For 2023, he said Perodua and its partners are going to focus on leveraging on the growth achieved so far and to further expand capacity.
Moving forward, he said that Perodua would continue to introduce new technologies in its future products and services as well as to continue to invest in innovations in its operations.
“In addition, we will also encourage our partners, namely our suppliers and dealers to continue to invest in new technologies so that they can be more competitive and productive," he said.
Zainal said the company would announce the full list of its targets later this month.
“But I wish to take this opportunity to thank the government for their continued support, our partners for their dedication, Perodua staff for their sacrifice and hard work, and especially to our valued customers for their loyal support,” he added.
