KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone and the car industry is no exception. Despite losing more than two months of car production and sales due to the MCO, Proton has managed to sell 109,716 vehicles for the whole of 2020. This marks an 8.8 per cent increase over 100,821 units sold in 2019 and it’s the highest annual sales since 2015.

According to Proton, the main sales drivers were the Proton Persona, Iriz, Exora and Saga, and all four models which were recently refreshed managed to post higher sales figures in 2020. The national carmaker added that they have also enjoyed 49.8 per cent growth in export volume which allowed them to buck the trend of the local automotive industry which is expected to contract by about 13 per cent. Some of its export markets include Kenya, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh and Brunei.

The Saga is still their best seller with a total of 46,527 units sold for the full year and it’s currently the 2nd highest volume A-segment sedan. This is followed the Persona with 23,917 units sold and the Proton X70 SUV with 21,944 units sold. Proton has sold 7,636 units of the Iriz and 5,849 units of the Exora MPV.

For the newly launched Proton X50, they have sold a total of 3,787 units, making it the 3rd highest volume B-segment SUV. According to Proton, the Persona, Exora and the X70 are the top sellers in their respective segments.

In terms of quality, Proton says its Global Customer Product Audit (GCPA) scores have shown significant improvements with all six models scoring under 1,000 points. GCPA is based on a demerit score system which means a product with a higher score has more issues than a product with a lower score. Last year, the carmaker had a GCPA score of 1,190 which claims to be six times better compared to 2017 and is better than Geely.

In case you missed it, the Ministry of Finance has extended the SST exemption under the PENJANA program until 30th June 2021. Locally-assembled (CKD) vehicles will continue to get 100 per cent SST exemption while fully-imported (CBU) vehicles get 50 per cent SST exemption. — SoyaCincau