Honda Malaysia announces sales performance; leads non-national segment

KUALA LUMPUR: Honda Malaysia bagged the top spot in the non-national segment and finished second in the overall rankings in terms of sales volume. The announcement was made at the company’s annual media gathering, where alongside announcing the performance of last year, Honda also forecasted the company’s target for this year.

Last year had been the peerless time for the car manufacturers in Malaysia. The reason behind this was the three-month tax holiday between the abolition of the 6% GST and the introduction of 10% GST. This surprise by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was expected to bolster the sales of car companies, which had gathered stocks for the cars. The expectation changed into reality with the whopping sales of automobiles, in which Honda Malaysia garnered the sweetest spot.

“During the three-month tax holiday period, Honda Malaysia received overwhelming demand from customers, and this, in turn, made a significant contribution to its total sales,” said Honda’s company managing director and CEO Toichi Ishiyama.

The statistics reveal that Honda has sold 102,282 units in 2018. However, this is less than the 109,000 sales target for the year and even 6.6% lower when compared to the sales of 2017. Nonetheless, the numbers are more than satisfactory to boost the company’s morale as it surpassed the 100k mark for the second time.

Honda’s regionally assembled models were the segment leaders. The City contributed 32% of the total sales, followed by the Civic with 16%, and CR-V with 13% shares. Furthermore, in 2018 Honda Malaysia also witnessed an 11% growth in service intake over 2017, which is the highest level achieved by the company.

Honda Malaysia also speculates a total industry volume (TIV) of 580,000 units for 2019. It aims to capture 16% of the market share with a sale of 95,000 units.