Perodua has revealed its Q3 2023 sales and production figures and things look very good for the market leader. Q3 sales are up 28.3% year-on-year and sales for the first nine months of 2023 is 18.8% higher.
For the final stretch, Perodua and its two Sg Choh factories are going full throttle to produce at least 30,000 units per month, which means that the sales target for 2023 of 314,000 units – which would be a new sales record to beat last year’s record – will surely be surpassed. We talk about production because that is the key – P2 generally sells whatever it produces.
But there’s an unlikely hero this year and his name is Bezza. With 65,158 units sold as of Q3 2023, the sedan is Malaysia’s outright best selling vehicle, both in Q3 and YTD September, never mind segment battles. For context, it’s currently nearly 14k units ahead of the Axia, which is just ahead of the Myvi. Bezza sales is a whopping 41.3% higher y-o-y with one quarter to go.
That means that the sedan is virtually guaranteed to wrest the sales king crown from the Myvi, which was Malaysia’s best selling car in 2022 (with 74,840 units, it was also top in 2021).
The Bezza topping Malaysia’s (full-year) sales charts for the first time is almost a certainty with one quarter to go, barring a sudden change in trend or catastrophe, as Perodua VP Datuk Ahmad Suhaimi Hashim said on the sidelines of the Japan Mobility Show that the Bezza is the most produced car in the factories now to suit market demand. And the market seems to really like the Bezza now.
Suhaimi also revealed that the Perodua Global Manufacturing plant (PGMSB is the newer of the two in Sg Choh) had upped the takt time for the Bezza three times this year. Takt time a manufacturing term to describe the required product assembly duration – basically how fast a company can make a product.
It’s an unlikely hero because the Bezza is the oldest car in P2’s range – the compact sedan was launched back in July 2016 and is still in its first generation, having received a facelift in early 2020. Sibling Axia has since moved into the DNGA era, but the Bezza remains, not just surviving but thriving. Wouldn’t have guessed, would you?
The post Perodua Bezza is Malaysia’s best selling car so far in 2023; set to take over from Myvi, No.1 for the first time appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
