Honda Malaysia aiming big for 2010
It was a good year for Honda Malaysia in 2009. Before the year started, they had set themselves a target to sell 35,000 cars. Come year end, expectations were exceeded as they managed to sell a total of 38,783 units, which represents a staggering 19% growth from 2008.
Primary contributor of the stellar sales figures is the City, which accounted for 51% of the company’s sales volume. Other main contributors of sales are the Civic, Accord, and CR-V, accounting for 19%, 16%, and 9% respectively.
“2009 was a tough year for the automobile industry worldwide. In Malaysia, the total automobile market is reportedly shrunk by 2%. In spite of the economic contraction, Honda managed to close its book with 38,783 units of sales, which are equivalent to a 19% year-on-year growth. We also captured 7.2% of the TIV as compared to 5.9% in 2008, whereas in the Non-national Passenger Car segment, our pie has increased from 24.8% to 32.9%,” Mr. Toru Takahashi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia shared during the company’s recent annual media gathering.
Besides racking up the sales figures, Honda Malaysia had several milestones that helped define their year. Launching of the City in December 2008 set the company up for a great start, as the new model racked up the sales as soon as orders were taken. By November 2009, the company had received a booking from their 200,000th customer since setting up shop in 2001.
A change of management took place in April 2009, as Toru Takahashi took over as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company from Atsushi Fujimoto, reassigned to Honda’s operations in Thailand.
In terms of model change, the Civic range was facelifted, with the Civic Hybrid’s price brought down from an astronomical RM160k to a more manageable RM130k – a helpful reduction which helped HM to sell 200 units of the car. However the Civic Type R did not receive an upgrade until November, when units of the facelifted versions were shipped in from Japan.
Also facelifted, twice, was the Honda Stream, with the introduction of the RSZ version in February, followed by another minor update in November. The Accord range, meanwhile, was boosted by the introduction of a new 2.0 VTi-L variant, slotted in between the 2.0 VTi and 2.4 VTi-L.
In the corporate social responsibility front, Honda Malaysia continued its collaboration withthe United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to run its Honda Dreams Fund providing educational opportunities for underpriveleged youth. It also continued its collaboration with WWF in the Rhino Rescue Project in a bid to raise environmental awareness.
For 2010, Honda Malaysia concurs with the Malaysian Automotive Association projection of 550,000 unit for the total industry volume of 2010. Based on this projection, the company aims to hit the 40,000 mark for this year.
Honda Malaysia personnel remain tight-lipped on potential new model launches for this year, but smart money is on the CR-V getting a midlife facelift. An Accord facelift is possible, but highly unlikely until 2011. There are also rumours of the Honda Freed mini-MPV coming over from Indonesia, but those reports are yet to be confirmed.
