National Car Marker PROTON Aims For A Strong Finish For Last Four 4 Months of 2021

Following the resumption of production, sales and export activities, national car maker PROTON expects an increased sales volume to begin this month. The company aims to end 2021 with a strong finish. 

PROTON managed to sell a total of 5,354 units from June to August this year, including a mix of online registrations and exports. The company’s plant in Tanjung Malim experienced limited production for a brief period after Perak was declared a Phase 2 state on July 5. This was caused by a shortage of parts from vendors located in Selangor. 

With an increase of 1.6 percent over the same period in 2020, the total volume came up to 62,637 units up to the end of August. 

“Our total sales volume up to August reflects PROTON’s strong performance over the first five months of the year. 2021 has been challenging for the automotive industry as lockdowns, chip shortages and a number of other issues have stunted sales growth, but we are confident of an industry-wide surge in numbers over the final four months of the year,” said Chief Executive Officer, Proton Edar, Roslan Abdullah. 

In addition to this, PROTON is also able to resume export activities to export markets. This includes three shipments of the Proton X70 (about 108 units) to Pakistan this month. Also included is CKD packs of the Proton Saga ahead of its roll-out that is expected to go through at the end of October.

If you’re wondering how the company is able to reopen its factories and outlets, this is due to its successful PIKAS vaccination plan. More than 93 percent of the employees at PROTON are fully vaccinated, as well as 75 percent of its employees at vendors and dealers. 

This means that the PROTON ecosystem is close to being allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity (based on the current SOPs). 

“Aside from Malaysian market customers, PROTON’s export markets have also benefited from the resumption of production activities. It’s still too early to tell how quickly we can fulfil our outstanding orders, but we are closing the gap every day.

“Additionally, the success of our vaccination programme will be vital to our performance for the rest of the year. By having a fully vaccinated workforce, we can reassure the market that PROTON has taken every conceivable step to make it safe for fully vaccinated customers to visit our showrooms and service centres,” he added.