AFTER a year of unprecedented challenges, PROTON closed 2020 on a high with an increase in sales over its landmark performance in 2019.
Despite losing over two months of car production and sales to the movement control order (MCO), the company sold 109,716 vehicles for the whole of 2020 after shifting 13,306 units in December.
This 2020 total represents an increase of 8.8% over the 100,821 units sold in 2019, making PROTON the only major automotive company to record growth in Malaysia.
Market share for the year also increased to an estimated 21.1%, equating to a significant 4.4% increase.
The main drivers of volume growth were the Proton Persona, Iriz, Exora and Saga (PIES), while the X50 surpassed expectations despite it’s later than planned arrival.
All four PIES models were extensively updated in 2019 and the investment has paid off with each model posting higher sales numbers this year despite the pandemic.
This performance combined with a 49.8% increase in export volume, allowed PROTON to buck the trend of the Malaysian automotive industry which is expected to contract by an estimated 13%.
“We are grateful to have achieved this level of performance against the backdrop of 2020. To describe it as challenging would be an understatement but we persevered,” PROTON CEO Dr Li Chunrong pointed out.
“Our results were backed by many factors, trust from our customers, support from the Government, commitment from vendors, resilience of our dealers and also the diligence of our staff.”
COVID-19 brought economic activity to a complete halt and its adverse effects required quick, prudent and tough management decisions.
At PROTON, the last few years of vigilant cost control and improved efficiencies allowed the company to react quickly to the crisis.
This meant that despite the shutdown, there were no layoffs or salary cuts. More importantly, constant monitoring and agility allowed the company to ramp up production very quickly after the lockdown. – Jan 4, 2021
