Petrol price hike fails to dent Perodua bookings

THE recent hike in petrol price did not have a negative impact on bookings for Perodua cars, which recorded a high of 22,000 in June.

Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said half of the bookings were for its Viva model, popular for its fuel-efficiency.

"Normally we collect 7,000 bookings for Viva a month, but the trend is not surprising as the car gives you 18km per litre. For this month, up until today, bookings for Viva stands at 8,000," he told reporters after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Road Safety Department in Putrajaya yesterday, witnessed by Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat.

Under the MOU, Perodua sponsored a MyVi 1.3 for the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research.

The car has been equipped with RM30,000 worth of electronic sensors to test various driving patterns under different conditions.

Meanwhile, Syed Hafiz predicted that the car industry will most likely see sales increase by as much as nine per cent this year to about 530,000 units.

He said this is higher than the 510,000 units or five per cent increase forecast made by the Malaysian Automobile Association.

Syed Hafiz said, for Perodua, MyVi continued to be its top seller with bookings never dropping below 8,000 a month.

"Sales of MyVi continue to be strong and we expect it to contribute 53 per cent to our overall sales this year, from 52 per cent last year," he said, adding that since May 2005 until now, there are 250,000 MyVi cars on the road.

He also said that Perodua's target of selling 166,000 cars this year has been revised to 170,000 because of the good demand for its Viva and MyVi models.

"Our production alone for this month has been very high at 17,000 cars due to the bookings," said Syed Hafiz, adding that sales have increased 11 per cent in the first half of this year.