Ground checks were conducted by RHB Research (RHB) at the Malaysia Autoshow 2023 to assess the condition of the auto and auto parts sector last Saturday.
The event was crowded, with especially large crowds at the Toyota, Honda and BMW booths, said RHB in the report. While generally declining from second half 2022 and quarter one 2023, some popular models still have a waiting period of several months.
Notably, the Chinese brands made their presence felt, as visitors crowded around their soon-to-be-launched models. Honda, Toyota, Chery, Great Wall Motors (GWM), BMW and Mercedes had noticeably crowded booths. While not packed, Perodua’s booth had a lot of car buyers awaiting loan approval.
Most Peroduas have a waiting period of 2-3 months, with Bezza and Axia taking six months or more. Proton’s booth was missing the X90, but a sales personnel said his dealership has already begun taking X90 orders. Honda’s booth was arguably the most crowded.
The HR-V and Civic have the longest waiting periods of 4-6 months, while the others either have ready-stock or take 1-2 months for delivery. Toyota’s booth was also very packed, especially around the GR models. There is a 6-7 months waiting period for the all-new Vios, with no reported cancellations due to Daihatsu’s recent scandal. All other models have a waiting period of 3 months.
GWM had a large booth displaying the Ora Good Cat, soon-to-be-launched GWM Cannon, Haval H6 hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and Haval Jolion HEV. There were large crowds surrounding these models, especially of the Ora Good Cat, with some orders being placed on the spot. Chery’s booth was also swarmed with people around the Tiggo 8 Pro and Omoda 5.
“We also saw the newly launched Neta V, now the cheapest EV in Malaysia at RM99.8k,” said RHB.
Despite the decent crowd at Neta’s booth, RHB gathered that orders have been slow. While RHB thinks that Chinese brands will be well received in Malaysia, they are not a threat to the incumbents given the latter’s more attractive resale value.
RHB learnt that while many EVs in the market are readily available, some EVs have a long/uncertain waiting period mainly as the dealerships lack visibility on when they will receive their imported units. Discussions with sales personnel confirmed that consumers generally still prefer petrol cars over EVs.
Ground checks at the autoshow reinforces RHB’s view that the overall sector demand remains healthy, especially the key marques. The interest in recently launched models should continue to fuel future orders. Key risks identified by RHB includes softer-than-expected orders and deliveries, and resurgent supply chain issues.
