PETALING JAYA, Sept 20 — Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is targeting to sell 1,000 units monthly of the new variant introduced in the Axia model — Axia Style — driven by exciting features it offers.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said the new variant that was unveiled with three facelifted existing main variants today, is expected to cater to the demands of young professionals and first-time car buyers.
“We are targeting 6,000 units of Axia sales monthly, and of this, 1,000 units are expected to be contributed by the Style variant,” he told reporters after the launch of the 2019 Perodua Axia here, today.
The new Axia had received around 5,000 bookings since its order book opened last month and the second national carmaker is expecting about 27 per cent of its 235,000 units projected sales this year comes from Axia model.
Available in six variants — E, G, GXtra, SE, AV and new STYLE — the new Axias are priced between RM24,090 and RM43,190, on-the-road (OTR) for Peninsular Malaysia.
“For over a quarter of a century, Perodua has mobilised Malaysia with quality compact vehicles that offer practicality, dependability, ease to drive and low overall ownership costs.
“For these reasons and more, the Perodua Kancil and Viva were popular choices for an entire generation of Malaysians buying their first cars,” said Zainal Abidin.
He added that the new Axia, which is an energy-efficient vehicle, also offers Malaysians major advances in safety and style, while retaining affordability.
“It is our aspiration to share as much as possible of our latest technology across all our vehicles variants with the public,” he said, adding that the company is offering a value proposition for the new Axia, despite the additional cost it may incur, by providing the latest advanced technology.
Perodua Sales Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Zahari Husin said the company’s aspiration to maintain affordability across its vehicles would attract more customers underpinned by advanced technology offerings.
“We work closely with vendors (supply chain) to manage the material cost to the level that we can absorb,” he said, adding that Perodua had initiated the cost-reduction programme in the last four years to reduce vehicles prices via improvement in the production facility, making it more efficient.
Meanwhile, Perodua chairman Tan Sri Asmat Kamaludin said the company had produced and sold about 3.7 million vehicles nationwide for the past 26 years.
“We hope we have made a significant impact on the daily lives of Malaysians. Perodua is so much more than just about selling cars,” he said.
For the first eight months of 2019, he said Perodua sold over 160,000 vehicles, commanding about 40 per cent of the Malaysian market share.
“The 2019 Axia is the result of our continuous improvement efforts in the areas of safety, practicality and overall value in our products,” he said. — Bernama
