The Perodua Bezza, the country’s bestselling sedan, was named the 2017 Frost & Sullivan’s Malaysia Car of the Year award at the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Excellence Awards held yesterday evening. The 2017 Frost & Sullivan’s Malaysia Car of the Year award was based on the model’s substantial sales volume, sales growth, market share in its segment and overall impact to the total industry volume.
Frost & Sullivan also named the Perodua Bezza as the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Debut Car of the Year and the Perodua Axia as the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Value-for- Money (1.3L & Below Category) Car of the Year.
“We are overwhelmed with this recognition for the Perodua Bezza and the Axia. The 2017 Frost & Sullivan’s Malaysia Car of the Year Award for the Bezza is an endorsement towards our first ever full upper body designed model,” Perodua President & CEO, Datuk (Dr) Aminar Rashid Salleh said.
Frost & Sullivan in the 2017 Frost & Sullivan’s Best Car of the Year Award take into account quantitative and qualitative factors to determine the winner. The quantitative factors are sales volume for 2015 and 2016; sales volume growth; market share within its own segment in 2015 and 2016; market share growth within the vehicle’s own segment; and average sales per month.
The qualitative factors are key marketing strategy in 2016; key selling points of the nominated model; key competitive advantages; significant achievements of 2016; and popularity and perception among customers. The Perodua Bezza was launched on 21st July 2016 and is the bestselling sedan for the first quarter of 2017 with over 15,900 units sold. The Perodua Bezza has sold about 50,900 units since it was launched in July last year.
The Perodua Bezza’s ‘Beyond Compact’ tagline also communicates that the Perodua Bezza goes beyond drivers’ expectations of what a Malaysian sedan offers. The advanced technology, amazing usability and affordability, built upon Perodua’s trademark of quality, reliability, value and care.
The sedan comes in 5 variants, the 1.0L Manual Transmission & Automatic Transmission; the 1.3L “Premium X” Manual & Automatic Transmission; and the 1.3L “Advanced Version” Automatic Transmission.
The Perodua EEV sedan is a first of its kind for the compact car company as the car comes in a new 1.0 litre 1KR-VE engine with VVT-i and a 1.3 litre 1NR-VE engine with Dual VVT-i. The manual transmission has 5 speeds while the electronic automatic transmission (E-AT) has 4 speeds.
The Perodua Bezza 1.0 litre engine may reach up to 22.8km per litre for its manual transmission, while the automatic transmission can potentially travel 21.3 kilometres per litre with eco driving.
As for the Perodua Axia, the national compact car maker sold some 231,300 units of the model since it was launched in September 2014. The Perodua Axia is the first Energy Efficient Vehicle produced in Malaysia.
Receiving the awards were Datuk Ahmad Suhaimi Hashim for the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Car of the Year, while Dato’ Dr. Zahari Husin accepted the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Debut Car of the Year and the Perodua Axia as the 2017 Frost & Sullivan Malaysia Value-for- Money (1.3L & Below Category) Car of the Year awards.
“We thank Frost & Sullivan for their dedication and for being impartial in their judging process. We would also like to thank all Malaysians for their support and trust they have given to Perodua. We will further improve our processes to further delight you; because at Perodua; you matter most,” Datuk (Dr) Aminar said.
