New vehicle sales in Malaysia dropped 12% in May 2022, 49k units sold

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has released new vehicle sales figures for the month of May 2022 which recorded 49,603 units sold that month. Compared to April 2022 (56,213 units), sales went down 12%.

The reasons for the drop in market performance were due to a shorter working month in commemoration of the Hari Raya festive holidays as well as a shortage of chips and components along with logistics delay disruptions.

Despite the slump, the year-to-date (YTD) sales volume for May 2022 (265,656 units) was 7.4% higher than the similar corresponding period in 2021 (247,250 units).

In terms of production, 49,154 vehicles were produced in May, bringing YTD production volume to 258,048 units.

MAA projected that sales in June 2022 are expected to be better than in May. The impetus from the sales tax exemption incentive for consumers to buy passenger vehicles (which is due to expire on 30-June 2022) and aggressive push for sales by car companies could see a rise in new car sales.

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However, the shortage of chips and components as well as the supply chain disruptions will continue to affect some carmakers.