The road transport department‘s (JPJ) new car registration data is out early. Perodua and Proton respectively sold 24,530 and 15,243 cars in March; the latter’s number being 62% of Perodua’s (it was 76% in January thanks to Proton’s 19,750-unit blockbuster). Toyota and Honda appear to have found some wind, shifting 8,617 and 7,062 units respectively in March, after doing circa-6,000 and 3,000 respectively earlier in the year. Honda more than doubled month-on-month (MoM). Chery, normally fifth, has fallen to eighth in the monthly table and sixth in the year-to-date (YTD) standings, its sales steadily slipping from 1,287 in January to 938 in February and 892 last month. Taking its place is stablemate Omoda | Jaecoo, which had its best month so far this year with nearly 1,500 units. So did Mazda in sixth with 1,054 units (+137% MoM!). Mitsubishi gets lucky number seven in both monthly (981) and YTD (3,061) standings. BYD also got double-ninths; 879 units for the month and 2,261 units YTD. Jetour is in March’s top 10 (790 units)! We don’t remember the travel-focused Chery Group brand ever placing this highly – its YTD figure is now nearly 1,700 units for 11th overall. Mercedes-Benz (11th) and BMW (12th) respectively did 727 and 672 units in March. Nissan more than doubled its sales to 585 units in March, earning it 13th and pushing its YTD tally to 1,160 for 15th place. This is the first time this year we’re seeing Tesla in the monthly top 20 – it sold 338 units in March (16th), but its YTD total isn’t enough to make the list. Ford, Isuzu, iCaur and MG are clutching on to the tails of both the monthly and YTD lists; Zeekr has declined from 489 in January to 191 in February and 177 last month. Let’s go back and look at the Big Four to see how the year is shaping up. Perodua’s 74,233 units YTD is one-and-a-half times that of Proton – Tanjong Malim is now 24% of the way to its 200k target for the year. Toyota and Honda are at 22,208 and 13,618 units respectively – Toyota’s figure would include a considerable number of recon/grey-market cars, while Honda is now 23% of the way to its 60k target for 2026. Compare prices between different insurer providers to save the most on your car insurance renewal compared to other competing services. Many payment method supported and you can pay with instalment using Atome, Grab PayLater or Shopee SPayLater. Use the promo code 'PAULTAN' when you checkout for 10% discount!
