Q1 2023 car sales continues its climb, March 2023 highest for the year as carmakers rush to fulfil SST exemption bookings

The Q1 2023 wrap up of car sales figures sees March 2023 expectedly post the highest figures of the year thus far as carmakers rushed to fulfil bookings collected during the SST exemption period given that the grace period for delivering the cars concluded on 31 March 2023.

March 2023 posted the highest numbers in terms of sales for the year at 78,849 units, marking an increase of 24 percent over the 63,510 units of February 2023.

Accordingly, the numbers collected are also 8 percent higher against the 73,250 units sold in March 2022.

Also Read: February 2023 vehicle sales up by 26 percent over previous month, slew of new models could see TIV revised

Lining up the year-to-date figures side by side demonstrate a stronger showing for Q1 of 2023 with 192,474 units sold in the first 3 months of the year. For reference’s sake, the first 3 months of 2022 netted 159,846 units. That represents an increase of 20 percent.

In the Malaysian Automotive Association’s (MAA) monthly sales report, the all-time high for March 2023 could be attributed to three primary reasons:

• carmakers fulfilling bookings collected during the SST exemption period
• rush to deliver bookings for carmakers that have their financial year ending on 31 March 2023
• Hari Raya festive period promotional campaigns

Also Read: March 2022 vehicle sales are 62.5 percent higher than month before, exceeds target for Q1

While things have been dandy thus far with every month of 2023 recording conecutiively increasing, the beginning of Q2 will likely be a bleak one with the MAA expecting numbers to drop for April 2023.

The leading cause, according to the MAA, would be due to the short working month as Hari Raya will see many taking extended periods of leave. Furthermore, many potential carbuyers may have bit the bullet and plonked their money down during the Hari Raya sales campaigns in March 2023.