New Vehicle Sales Hit New All-Time High in 2024 at 816,474 Units

Sales of new vehicles in 2024 recorded at 816,474 units, surpassing the 800,000 mark for the first time in Malaysia’s history.

Sales of new motor vehicles in Malaysia have surpassed the 800,000 mark for the first time in its entire history, with a total of 816,474 units sold in 2024. This was announced by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) in a press conference earlier today, where the 2024 sales volume also marks a new all-time high record for the Malaysian automotive industry, surpassing the previous record set back in 2023.

Compared to 2023’s sales volume, 2024 saw a 2.1% increase in total industry volume (TIV) or vehicle registration, going from 799,821 units in 2023 to 816,474 units last year.

According to MAA, among the biggest contributing factors to this record-breaking performance is the resilient domestic economy, which saw the nation’s GDP growing at 5.2% in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to 3.8% in the same period in 2023. 

Besides those two factors, MAA has also credited 2024's success to the unchanged OPR rate of 3%, the stable socio-political environment of Malaysia, the nation’s low unemployment rate of 3.2%, successful new model launches, as well as high backlog orders from the previous year, particularly from the A-segment vehicles.

Despite this record-breaking feat, only the passenger car segment recorded an increase in sales for 2024, with the commercial vehicle segment experiencing a slight downfall last year. The total registration of new passenger vehicles in 2024 rose to 747,180 units from 719,145 units in 2023—a healthy increase of 28,035 units or 3.9% over the previous year.

Perodua has strengthen its position as the number one automaker in Malaysia by delivering record-breaking 358,102 units last year.

This high sales volume increase is also attributed to the stellar success of national automaker Perodua, which also set a new TIV record last year at 358,102 units. As a result, the combined share of national makes (within the passenger vehicle segment) rose to 67.7% (505,689 units) compared to 66.9% (481,300 units) in 2023. Meanwhile, the non-national makes registered a lower sales volume of 311,058 units, or a 2.3% decline compared to 318,521 units in 2023.

Sales of electrified vehicles (xEVs) have also risen in 2024, accounting for 5.6% of the total TIV in 2024 compared to 4.8% in 2023. The xEV sales jumped by 19% from 38,214 units in 2023 to 45,562 units, with 14,766 units of BEVs and 30,796 units of hybrid vehicles.

As for the commercial vehicles, 2024 saw a lower sales volume registered for the segment, with only 69,567 units delivered compared to 80,676 units in 2023—a decline of 13.8% or 11,109 units. MAA has attributed this decline to the removal of the diesel subsidy in June 2024, which saw the demand for pick-up trucks reduced by 16.4%.

On a year-on-year (YOY) basis, TIV was higher in 2024 for six months compared to 2023. The highest monthly TIV in history was recorded in Dec 2024 at 81,735 units, surpassing the 80,000 units mark for the first time, while at the same time breaking the previous record set back in Mar 2023 at 78,895 units.

As for the Total Industry Production (TIP), 2024 saw the TIP volume increase by 15,747 units, or 2%, to reach a total of 790,347 units compared to 774,600 units in 2023, marking an all-time high.

Moving forward, MAA has forecasted the TIV in 2025 to slightly drop by 4.5% (36,747 units) to 780,000 units compared to 2024. The association has cited several external factors for its 2025 forecast, including marginal economic growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2025, duties exemption for imported BEVs that are set to expire by the end of 2025, limited EV charging facilities that can hinder BEV sales growth, and the uncertainty surrounding the US-China trade war, to name a few.