The automotive industry in Malaysia is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and Proton is seeing a notable improvement in its sales too. In the month of May 2020, the national carmaker managed to sell 5,676 vehicles, which translates to 23.3% market share for the month. On top of that, the Proton Saga was the best-selling car of May 2020 as well.

In fact, this is the first time the Saga managed to grab that title since it was facelifted last year in August. Naturally, it was also the most popular A-segment sedan in the country last month, pulling ahead of the equally popular Perodua Bezza. That’s quite an achievement.

There are also several Proton models that were class-leading in sales last month. The X70, for one, remains to be the best-selling C-segment SUV in Malaysia. It’s worth noting that the X70 was updated with a new N95 cabin filter last month, which likely helped bolster the sales of the SUV. Other models from the carmaker that led their respective segments are the B-segment sedan Proton Persona, as well as the C-segment MPV Proton Exora.

Collectively, Proton is still the second most popular car brand in Malaysia with a 21.1% year-to-date (YTD) market share. The company added that this is in line with its target set for the year.

“Proton is thankful our sales have not contracted as much as expected and we also need to say thank you to our vendors who worked tirelessly to ensure we could regain our footing as quickly as possible. It will take a few more months to get an accurate reading of market conditions but we are quietly confident from this point onwards, we will see steady growth for the rest of the year,” said the CEO of Proton, Li Chunrong.

Last Friday, the government laid out its Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA), which will further stimulate the automotive industry in Malaysia. Locally assembled (CKD) cars – which are all of Proton’s models right now – will receive 100% sales tax exemption until the end of 2020.

With this in mind, expect the pricing of all Proton models to be revised in the coming weeks. But do keep in mind that sales tax only account for 10% of a car’s price tag, and even then it doesn’t mean that prices will be slashed by the same percentage. Regardless, we will keep a close eye on the pricing of Proton models – as well as other brands – for any changes.