By : LEANNZA CHIA
KUALA LUMPUR : At its peak,
four of every five cars sold in Malaysia was a Proton, but the carmaker is now
in danger of slipping into third spot in sales behind Toyota and Perodua, the
second national car company that has ruled the roost for over six years.
Industry sources told The
Edge newspaper in an article published today that Proton saw its market share
slip in December 2012 to just 17.7 per cent, with Toyota now a close third at
17.1 per cent share of passenger vehicle sales in the country.
“Perodua (Perusahaan
Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd) is the runway market leader while Proton over the last
few years has been a strong second. Now Toyota is closing in on Proton’s
position,” an unnamed executive told the financial daily.
Proton is controlled by Tan
Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s DRB-Hicom.
Industry executives told the
financial daily that Proton’s sales fell by over 11 per cent to 140,000 units
from 158,000 units a year earlier, missing the company’s target of 200,000
units by a wide margin.
Proton was established by
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1983 and became a poster child of the former prime
minister’s industrialisation policies.
Dr Mahathir had made it
patriotic to buy a Proton, but the company has seen its sales slump in the last
decade due to increasing liberalisation of the Malaysian market.
In the early days, Protons
were rebadged models from technical partner Mitsubishi’s older range, which
provided a solid foundation for the fledgling automaker but also limited its
ability to innovate.
It later succeeded in
developing its own vehicle platforms independent of the Japanese carmaker but
has since gone back to the practice of rebadging with the Inspira, which is
based on the Mitsubishi Lancer.
Malaysians were also unhappy
with being able to afford only Protons as a result of protectionist taxes and
duties meant to shield the carmaker in its early years but later became
indefinite.
The backlash following the
relaxation of vehicle import and local assembly rules saw buyers abandon the
local manufacturer for the increasingly abundant range of foreign makes.
According to The Edge,
Proton’s lack of new models bar one for 2013 will also put it under added
pressure this year, given the growingly competitive market.
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