KUALA LUMPUR: Sales of Perodua cars for January to September 2010 jumped 15% to 141,100 units from 122,900 units a year ago, prompting an upbeat Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd to expect sales for this year to exceed its revised target of 185,000 units.

Perodua captured 31% of the total industry volume of 454,700 vehicle sales during the nine-month period, enabling it to maintain its No 1 spot.

Managing director Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said he expected Perodua to exceed its revised target with the sales jump in the first nine months, which he attributed mainly to the improving economic conditions as well as Perodua’s high quality products and services.

“With over 141,000 vehicles sold over the nine-month period, we are on track to meet our 185,000 sales target. In fact, we do expect the possibility of exceeding this revised target based on the current momentum,” he added.

In July, Aminar revised upward Perodua’s sales target for the year from 176,000 to 185,000 units.  

On after sales, he said Perodua’s intake of vehicles for servicing has exceeded expectations, with the intake for the first nine months of the year jumping 5.5% to 1.25 million cars from 1.18 million serviced in the same period last year.

“The year-to-date intake performance even beat our own internal intake target of 1.23 million vehicles by 1.7%,” he added. Perodua’s year-to-date market share of service intake is 46%,” he said.

Aminar said out of every 100 Perodua vehicles on the road, 46 had returned to its service centres.

Meanwhile, Proton Holdings Bhd unveiled an all-new mid-sized four-door sedan called Inspira, with a starting price of RM79,888, following its collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC).

Proton group managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the Inspira was not a replacement model for the Waja.

“Waja is being discontinued. This is not a replacement,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama at the soft launch of the latest Proton model.

Syed Zainal Abidin said the new model was a result of Proton’s long-term relationship with MMC and enabled the national car maker to save a lot of funds and time.

“It’s cheaper from the company’s point of view,” he said, adding that it would cost up to RM700 million to develop a completely new car. It’s a win-win collaboration between Proton and MMC,” he said.

Booking started yesterday with a minimum fee of RM1,000. Those who book the car from yesterday until Nov 15 will get a free two-year service or first 50,000km.

Proton offers continuously variable transmission (CVT) with intelligent and innovative vehicle electronic control system (INVECS-III) in a variant of the Inspira. Proton aims to sell 1,600 units of the Inspira a month.

“The market for C-Segment cars is about 5,000 to 6,000 units a month. So, we are looking at 1,600 a month as it is value for money,” Syed Zainal Abidin said, adding that the Inspira comes in four colours — white, black, silver and red.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, October 15, 2010.