This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 4, 2017 - May 10, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Honda Malaysia says it is on track to achieve its sales target of 100,000 units and to maintain its top position in the non-national segment and No 2 spot in overall total industry volume (TIV) this year.

“Despite setting a challenging target for 2017, Honda Malaysia has achieved 35% of the sales target with more than 34,500 unit vehicles sold as of April 2017, the company said in a statement yesterday.

It added that the January to April sales figure was higher by 9,800 units or 40% higher compared with the same period in 2016.

In terms of market share, Honda contributed 19.4% to the TIV as of March, which is 5.1 percentage points higher compared with the same period last year.

Honda Malaysia said that following the strong results from two models launched in the first quarter, it achieved an all-time high with a record of 20.5% market share for the first time in March.

The seven-seater BR-V sold more than 7,800 units and contributed 23% to the current overall sales, while the new City that was launched in March also contributed 23% to the overall sales.

Additionally, the 10th-generation Civic also grabbed pole position in the C-segment and has sold more than 15,700 units since its launch in June last year, said Honda Malaysia.

“Prior to the introduction of the 10th-generation Civic, the monthly sales in the overall market for C-segment with turbocharged engine was between 50 and 200 units. Currently, the turbo variant of the Civic is sold at an average of 840 units per month, which makes up to 60% of the total number of Civics sold,” it said.

“With the two production lines at Honda’s manufacturing plant, the company will be able to adjust production according to the demand and to ensure quality is not jeopardised,” it said.