Business

Friday June 17, 2011

Perodua bullish on second-generation Myvi

By EUGENE MAHALINGAM
eugenicz@thestar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is optimistic of selling 8,500 units of its second-generation Myvi model per month, having registered about 10,000 bookings since June 4.

Managing director Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said he expected the new Myvi to continue the sales momentum of the previous generation Myvi.

“Almost 50% of our sales is from the Myvi (and) we hope this new model will continue the momentum,” he said at a briefing prior to the launch of the new Myvi yesterday.

The new MyVi

The new 1.3-litre Myvi comes in Standard, Premium and Elegance variants in both automatic and manual transmissions.

The on-the-road (OTR) price range for the new generation model is from RM43,900 for the standard manual transmission to RM57,400 for the elegance automatic transmission.

“Initial bookings have been encouraging,” said Aminar, adding that about 90% of the bookings were for the automatic variant. “Urban customers prefer vehicles with automatic transmissions,” he said.

Since its introduction in 2005, a total of 487,000 units of the previous generation Myvi were sold between May 2005 and May 2011, with an average of 81,200 vehicles per year and nearly 6,800 units per month.

Perodua had discontinued production of the first generation Myvi in April.

Aminar said he was confident that monthly sales of the new Myvi would exceed that of its predecessor despite the new model costing between RM500 and RM700 more.

“(Despite the higher pricing) we have done a lot of internal cost reductions to keep the OTR price at a minimum,” he said.

Aminar Rashid: ‘We have done a lot of internal cost reductions.’

Aminar said the new Myvi was more fuel efficient than its predecessor and had enhanced safety features, reduced noise and vibration as well as improved interior and exterior designs.

He said Perodua had sufficient stock of the new Myvi model in its inventory and that delivery of the units to customers would be done “as soon as possible”.

Aminar said local content in the new Myvi was at 85%, which was 5% higher than the previous generation model.

He also said Perodua would be exporting the new Myvi to Indonesia from next month. “The new Myvi will be a test of our seriousness in the export business,” he said.

Related Stories:
New Myvi with revved-up extras launched
New Myvi launched, priced from RM43,900 to RM57,400

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