MAA: Price hike inevitable as delays in car production continues, requests SST extension

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) predicts that car prices will inevitably increase due to the continuous delays in new car production as the shortage of microchips and components persists.

MAA president, Datuk Aishah Ahmad, told The Star's CarSifu that the supply chain has also been affected by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Other than that, she also cited that the shortage is due to an insufficient number of workers on the manufacturing side.

So, on top of the component shortage, manufacturers are also facing a logistic delay. She believes that all these issues will inevitably affect costs which is why in the long run car prices will go up.

According to The Star's CarSifu, MAA reported a drop in new vehicle sales from 73,222 in March 2022 to 56,213 units in April. The drop of 3.6 percent was largely due to the shortage of microchips and components as well as shipment delays.

Aishah revealed that MAA has put in an appeal to the Finance Ministry to extend the sales tax exemption. The news comes just days after the Federation of Motor and Credit Companies Associations of Malaysia (FMCCAM) reportedly made a similar appeal to the ministry.

In the same report by The Star's Carsifu, Proton deputy chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said that the company’s production is gradually getting back on track.

He admits that while there is still a shortage of parts, but supplies are steadily increasing so they expect waiting times to reduce as well.

Proton received 25,000 bookings each month with the Proton Saga and Proton X50 leading the sales chart. The average waiting time for Proton models is now between two and four months depending on variants, the X50 still has a waiting period of six months.

Roslan also noted the surge of bookings for the Saga and Proton X70 as the company has recently launched updates for each model.

Also read: Expiring in less than 3 weeks, but the SST exemption for new cars may be extended again