The UMW Group started 2021 on an encouraging note as both UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) and its associate company, Perodua, registered healthy automotive sales in January. The sustained demand was due to the sales tax exemption incentive which has now been extended to 30 June 2021.
UMWT achieved sales of 3,845 units in January 2021, 4.1% higher than the 3,692 units registered in the same month of last year. Toyota Vios, Yaris and Hilux continue to be UMWT’s best-selling models in January. The improved Vios and Yaris were launched on 17 December 2020. To further enhance its products offering for 2021, UMWT introduced the updated Toyota Fortuner and Innova on 2 February 2021. The 2021 Toyota Fortuner comes in two variants with styling, performance and safety updates, while retaining all the strong attributes that make it a popular SUV nationwide. The new 2021 Toyota Innova range, which comes in three variants, also has updated styling and features as well as additional safety systems which have been made standard.
Meanwhile, Perodua registered sales of 16,894 units in January 2021 and targets to sell 240,000 units this year, a 9% increase over the 220,163 units sold in 2020. Perodua also plans to increase its stock by targeting to increase production to 272,000 vehicles this year – the highest in its history and, in the process, will purchase a record RM6.5 billion worth of locally-sourced components in 2021 which will bode well for the local automotive industry.
UMW Holdings Berhad President and Group CEO, Dato’ Ahmad Fuaad Kenali said, “We are indeed grateful that the government had allowed the car assembly, showroom and service centre operations to continue with strict compliance to the standard operating procedure under the Movement Control Order 2.0. We are also thankful to the government for extending the sales tax exemption incentive to 30 June 2021, which has enabled the Group to register healthy sales in January. Moving forward, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has forecast that the total industry volume (TIV) will grow by nearly 8% to 570,000 units in 2021, underpinned by the projected GDP growth of between 6.5% and 7.5% in 2021 and continued support from the government. Both UMWT and Perodua will continue to focus on introducing new and improved models and offer superior after-sales services to satisfy our customers’ requirements and expectations in order to achieve our targets in 2021.”