Proton managed to stabilise its sales numbers for 2017 with an overall sales of 70,991 units of cars in 2017, compared to the 72,291 units sold in the previous year.
Retail sales increased 2.5% to 68,184 units in 2017 from 66,513 units in 2016. A healthy growth was seen from the Central, South, East Coast regions and East Malaysia, each recorded between 1% to 10% increase in units of cars sold. The overall number was affected by poorer fleet sales with 2,807 units sold in 2017 due to lower taxi orders.
The Saga, Persona and Ertiga make up 80% of total Proton car sales for 2017. The automaker’s best-selling car, the Saga registered steady sales at above 30,000 units in 2017. Persona, however, registered a 27% increase with 19,510 units sold compared to 15,390 units last year. The Ertiga also gained healthy acceptance in the market with 6,091 units sold in 2017.
“Part of the reasons that sales of our cars stabilised in 2017 is due to the aggressive quality improvement exercise done internally. Our counterpart from Geely Auto performed a stringent quality audit of our cars and within 3 months, we were able to improve our quality points threefold. The audit was measured using a stringent system, which is aligned to the international standard of Volvo cars, as practiced by Geely.
As we also already know, Proton cars have proven that they are durable and reliable, having gone through rigorous testing when we participated in the Sepang 1,000km endurance race in November 2017 and won Overall Champion. All these can only be achieved with the strong teamwork between the management team and employees,” said Abdul Rashid Musa, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Proton.
“We are looking at 2018 more positively and we hope to intensify our efforts to do better this year. This year will be a
critical year for Proton as we shall be implementing activities aligned to the new 3-10 years business plan, key to the
turnaround of the company. In order for us to pick up our sales numbers, we shall be taking further steps for more attractive consumer campaigns, and improvement of product and service quality,” Rashid added.
For the Chinese New Year promotion, Proton is rewarding its customers prosperity discounts for all Proton models, up to RM3,500 for a Saga, up to RM4,500 for a Persona, up to RM5,000 for an Iriz, up to RM5,500 for an Exora and
up to RM13,888 for a Perdana.
In conjunction with the festive season and in anticipation to the long journeys that our customers will be making for the festive holidays, Proton owners are also invited to a free 20-point safety inspection at any authorised Proton service outlets.
