It seems Proton’s sales were affected quite a bit by the floods that hit the Klang Valley area a couple of months ago. Compared to its sales in December 2021 (14,147), the national carmaker only managed to register 4,453 units in January 2022 – that’s quite a big difference.
According to Proton, this drop in sales is due to its vendors in Shah Alam that were impacted by the floods, disrupting the production of various models, including the Proton X50. But production of the B-segment SUV was resumed quite quickly, with over 2,601 units delivered last month.
This is followed by the Proton X70 with 799 units registered, Persona (694 units), Iriz (229 units), Saga (76 units), and the Exora (54 units). Evidently, the disruption to the production of the Saga – which is one of Proton’s best-selling models – contributed the most to the carmaker’s drop in sales for January 2022.
“After a successful end to 2021, January was a very tough month for Proton. Our short supply situation became magnified by the lack of units being produced, creating a severe shortage for our dealers,” said the CEO of Proton Edar, Roslan Abdullah.
“Thankfully, production for all our models resumed in January, though some required more time than others. We are, however, confident of meeting our targets for 2022 based on market projections as well as our sales and marketing plans for the rest of the year,” he added.
It’s worth noting that Proton CEO Li Chunrong (in a Facebook post) is setting a 150,000 sales target for the national carmaker in 2022. For the sake of context, Proton sold 114,708 vehicles in 2021 despite the extended COVID-19 lockdowns throughout the year. If things go well, it’s certainly an achievable figure. After all, demands for the Proton X50 remains strong.