PERUSAHAAN Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) expects its vehicle sales to drop by six to 10 per cent this year due to the gloomy economic outlook.
Last year, the carmaker sold about 167,000 units of vehicles, an increase of three per cent compared to 2007.
Currently, Perodua has a 30.5 per cent share in the local market.
"Our sales for the first two months of this year amounted to about 24,000 units, a 10 per cent drop compared to the previous corresponding period," said managing director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar.
This was due to seasonal factors such as the festive breaks earlier this year, he said at a ceremony to hand over vehicles to 12 local institutions of higher learning in Rawang today.
According to him, a clearer picture of how the industry will perform is likely to emerge from this month onwards.
Perodua will be launching its new multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) in the fourth quarter of this year.
"Hopefully, the launch of the new model will bring up our sales," Syed Hafiz said, adding that the carmaker will have three strong models next year comprising the Myvi, ViVA and new MPV.
Perodua expects to spend from RM30 million to RM40 million on the car-scrapping programme this year.
"Our scrapping programme started a few days ago and to date, 200 to 300 people have visited the Perodua website to check out the programme," Syed Hafiz said.
"A lot of people have shown an interest in it. By the end of April, we will know just how good the response is," he said.
Asked whether the programme would be extended, Syed Hafiz said the company would review the programme in the fourth quarter this year to decide whether to continue after one year, based on the response.
At today's ceremony, Perodua gave 12 Myvi units totalling about RM480,000 to the institutions of higher learning taking part in the Perodua Eco-Challenge, a competition to test the participant's engineering capabilities and spur the development of new technologies.
Among the institutions are Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Industri Selangor.
The others are Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Politeknik Ungku Omar, Universiti Malaya and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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