FOR every 10 passenger cars sold in Malaysia, four are by Perodua, which owns the largest slice of the segment in the local automotive market, said business analysis firm Frost & Sullivan.

Perodua has a 44.3% share in the passenger car segment, followed by Proton at 18%, said Frost & Sullivan associate partner Vivek Vaidya.

Japanese carmaker Honda comes in third at 15.4%, according to Frost & Sullivan’s report on the industry’s 2020 outlook and 2019 review.

“The overall market continues to be more concentrated, with the share of the top three players increasing to 77.7% in 2019.”

In terms of market-share gains last year, the largest were registered by Proton.

“Its market share grew from 12.1% to 15.4% due to the strong performance of the Proton Saga and Proton X70,” said Vaidya, who is also senior vice-president of mobility.

“In the process, Proton regained the second position after a gap of a few years. Perodua has an unassailable lead over all the other players, and is expected to remain as the No. 1 player in Malaysia.

“Honda has dropped to the third position, followed by Toyota, which has been occupying the fourth position for a few years now.”

Passenger cars make up more than 80% of the vehicles sold nationwide. The rest are commercial vehicles.

Of the 608,790 units sold last year, 549,232 were passenger cars, such as sedans, MPVs and SUVs.

This segment is price-sensitive, said Vaidya, and changes to the overall economy will have an impact on sales.

In the commercial vehicle segment, sales dipped last year to 54,441 units from 2018’s 65,512.

“With the exception of the panel van, all other commercial vehicle types, such as pick-ups and trucks, witnessed negative year-on-year growth,” said Vaidya.

Toyota continues to dominate the commercial vehicle segment at 31.4%, mainly due to the strong sales of its Hilux.

Although it saw a drop in sales last year, Isuzu continues to retain the second position at 16.1%. Mitsubishi rounds out the top three at 10.5%.

Ford places fourth at 10.4%, and Hino has surpassed Nissan to become fifth.

“There is a high correlation between the economy’s performance and the commercial vehicle segment. New infrastructure projects stimulate higher demand,” said Vaidya. – January 15, 2020.