KUALA LUMPUR (May 4): Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) sold an estimated 20,339 vehicles in April this year, down 16.5% from the 24,431 units it sold in the previous month, no thanks to the semiconductor shortage that is affecting multiple industries globally.

"Despite the global semiconductor chip shortage, Perodua managed to produce 20,278 vehicles in April 2021, pushing our year-to-date (YTD) production to 80,661 units," said Perodua president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad in a statement.

Perodua's April sales figure brought its YTD sales tally to 78,304 vehicles, up 74% over the 45,034 units sold in the first four months of 2020, which were hit by the country's first nationwide movement control order (MCO).

“The chip shortage is our top priority at present and we are deploying all our resources to deal with it, including working closely with the government and our business partners for viable solutions.

“Perodua remains committed towards timely deliveries, aided by our economies of scale. We thank our valued customers very much for their patience. We are doing all we can to deliver as many cars as possible before the expected expiry of the government’s sales tax exemption at end-June,” said Zainal.

For now, Perodua is maintaining its 2021 sales target of 240,000 units — up 9% from the 220,163 units it sold in 2020 — which is expected to lead to a record purchase of RM6.5 billion worth of locally sourced components this year.

Perodua is also targeting a production of 272,000 units this year (up 23% from 2020's 220,968 units) and 2.4 million service intakes (up 20% from 2020's two million service intakes).

Back to its April sales for this year, the company noted that the newly launched Ativa made up 4,624 units or over 22% of the figure, which lifted total Ativa units registered since the model's March 3 launch to nearly 9,000.

Demand for the model remained strong, Perodua said, with average bookings of about 290 units daily.

“The waiting period for the Ativa is currently between two and four months, depending on the desired colour and variant. We advise our valued customers to speak to our authorised sales advisers for accurate and up-to-date delivery times of various variant-colour combinations of the Ativa,” said Zainal.