National carmakers to maintain market share

Folks,

On Wednesday (Jan 7, 2015), I attended a media briefing by Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm, on the outlook of the automotive sector.

During the briefing, the consulting firm said that vehicle sales – also known as total industry volume (TIV) – is expected to rise by 3.15% to 685,950 units this year, based on new models launched at competitive price. (click here to download the presentation slide in PDF format)

Frost & Sullivan also said that the national carmakers – Proton and Perodua – are expected to maintain their market share this year. If you look at their market share, it has eroded from 51.1% in 2013 to 46.8% in 2014. The table below summarizes the finding by think-tank Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI):

Automaker	TIV in 2014	Market Share in 2014	Market Share in 2013
Proton	195,000	29.4%	29.9%
Perodua	115,000	17.4%	21.2%
Total	310,000	46.8%	51.1%

Source: MAI

And yesterday (Jan 12, 2015), the Government-backed MAI also mentioned a bullish TIV projection of 5.1% to 700,000 this year.

CEO Madani Sahari said, if the government implements a rebate system – known as clash for clunkers – then the TIV may rise by 10% to 770,000 units.

On the performance for 2014, data tracked by MAI – which is sourced from the Road Transport Department (JPJ) – revealed that the TIV in 2014 marched 1.4% to 665,675 units, from 655,793 units in 2013.

If you study the performance in 2014, the actual TIV fell short of the earlier target. One analyst estimates that this year's TIV is expected to contract, instead of expand, by 3% to 650,000.

I wonder whether the bullish projections is achievable this year, given gloomy economic outlook and expected inflationary pressures, stemming from the upcoming implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) by April 1.

The stories that I have written for this is shown below.

Source: The Edge Financial Daily, Thursday, Jan 8, 2015

Source: The Edge Financial Daily, Tuesday, Jan 13, 2015

New Vehicle Registration Number

Friends,

In the news today: the relevant authority has announced that the new vehicle rgistration number will begin with W1A.

Whoa, a new numbering system!

The current registration number is expected to end at "WYY 9999", by end of June of this year.

The vehicle number plate in Malaysia begins with W1. My car registration number is WSV ***5. And I bought it in August 2009. It is now WYH in May 2013. The change is absolutely rapid!

Oh, car registration number is Malaysia is sorted according to the state at where it is registered. The fastest selling registration number is the Kuala Lumpur area which begins with "W". It is sold like a hot cake. You can see that the letter of the registration number changes "like a girl changing her clothes" on the road.

The slowest change of registration number is "R", whose letter was assigned to represent the small State of Perlis.

The following is the meaning of the representation of the alphabet letter in the vehicle registration number that is used to repsent each states:-

*A - Perak
*B - Selangor
*C - Pahang
*D - Kelantan
*H - reserved only for taxis
*J - Johor
*K - Kedah
*L - Labuan (in the state of Sabah)
*M - Malacca
*N - Negri Sembilan
*Q - Sarawak
*R - Perlis
*S - Sabah
*T - Terengganu
*W - Kuala Lumpur
*Z - reserved for military vehicle

*KV - Langkawi (a small Island which belongs to the State of Kedah)

Anyway, that said; I wonder who will bid for W1A, and at what price will the vehicle registration number be sold?

Let's wait and see.