PETALING JAYA: Total vehicle sales surged more than 500% year-on-year to 48,922 units last month, mainly due to the low base during the same period last year as businesses were affected by the nationwide lockdown.
A total of 43,594 passenger vehicles being sold, while 5,328 units of commercial vehicles were registered, according to the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) in a statement yesterday.
As lockdowns were imposed to curb the surge in Covid-19 infections, only 7,499 vehicles were sold in July 2021.
Of the figure, 5,343 passenger vehicles and 2,156 commercial vehicles were sold.
Year-to-date in July, total vehicle sales rose 48% to 380,595 units from 256,677 units in the previous corresponding period.
The MAA said the total industry volume (TIV) for July was 23% lower than June, which was at 63,563 units.
“The exceptionally high TIV in June was because of the fulfilment of bookings by car companies for many of the bookings received prior to the last day of the sales tax exemption period.”
The MAA added that the shortage of chips and components had continued to affect some vehicle marques.
Sales for this month are expected to be maintained at last month’s level.
An analyst said the TIV performance for last month was within expectations.
“We did not expect TIV for July to surpass that of June’s due to the expiry of the sales tax holiday.
“However, the vehicle sales momentum still remained steady last month, on the back of new model launches,” he said.
The vehicle sales tax exemption was announced in June, under the short-term economic recovery plan or Penjana.
Locally-assembled cars were fully exempted from the sales tax while for imported cars, the sales tax was reduced from 10% to 5%.
The tax holiday was supposed to end in December 2020 but was extended to June 30, 2021, and again until the end of that year.
During the tabling of Budget 2022 last October, the government announced that the sales tax exemption would be extended one more time until June 30.
