KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 2): Proton Holdings Bhd saw its October sales rise by 20% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 11,392 units from 9,503 units in October 2019, marking the fifth month of y-o-y growth.

However, on a monthly basis, sales declined by 4.6% from 11,935 units in September, it said in a statement today.

Year to date, its sales were up by 6.2% y-o-y at 84,999 units. It currently has an estimated market share of 21.3% of Malaysia's automotive sales.

The car manufacturer noted that three of its models continued to lead in their respective market segments. The Persona led the B-segment sedan market with 2,360 units sold, while the Proton X70 saw 2,216 units sold in October, maintaining its lead in the sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment.

Meanwhile, the Exora saw 580 units sold, making it the bestselling C-segment multi-purpose vehicle market.

Proton Edar chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said the recovery in the country's automotive market is continuing to gather pace given the number of new model launches and total sales seen in October.

"We estimate the total industry volume (TIV) to be the second highest in 2020 with over 57,000 units sold, [a] proof that the car industry is rebounding strongly. At Proton, we are thankful for the steady growth in sales, as we have yet again beaten our monthly numbers from the previous year, but we believe we could have performed better," he said.

"Looking at the numbers, we noticed a significant drop in East Malaysia sales while the Central region was static compared to September. Part of this was due to the implementation of the Conditional Movement Control Order to limit the movement of people and thus affecting retailers but there was also a sense of customers holding back before the launch of our newest model, the Proton X50. Regardless, Proton is confident of ending the year well and using the results as a base to aim even higher in 2021," he added.

As of end-October, Proton saw 27,400 bookings for its X50 SUV, with 447 units already delivered to customers.

"Proton would like to thank all its customers for the tremendous interest shown in the Proton X50. We are pushing to ensure fulfilment over the last three months of 2020, while continuing to emphasise product quality," said Roslan.

Shares in Proton's 50.1% parent company DRB-Hicom Bhd were down by 2.11% or four sen at RM1.86, valuing it at some RM3.6 billion. It saw 1.53 million shares transacted.