This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 13, 2017 - July 19, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR: Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which runs a manufacturing plant in Pegoh, Melaka, has no immediate plan to export to the Asean market.
Its group vice-president for marketing, dealer development and East Malaysia regional office Akkbar Danial said the domestic market is large enough to absorb the production capacity of 100,000 units a year.
“We have yet to export any finished products to overseas markets. Our sales target is 100,000 units this year and it is just enough for the Malaysian market,” Akkbar told reporters after the launch of the all-new Honda CR-V here yesterday.
The Pegoh manufacturing facility runs two production lines and produces seven models, namely the Jazz, City, BR-V, Civic, Accord, HR-V and CR-V.
Honda Malaysia yesterday unveiled the latest locally assembled CR-V sport utility vehicle and is targeting to sell 700 units per month.
There are four variants available for sale: 1.5L Turbocharged 2WD (RM155,700), 1.5L Turbocharged 4WD (RM161,600), 1.5L Turbocharged Premium 2WD (RM167,700) and 2.0L 2WD (RM142,400). All prices exclude insurance.
The all-new CR-V is packaged with five-year warranty with unlimited mileage at 10,000km service intervals, with terms and conditions.
Meanwhile, Kenanga Research said in its note dated July 7 that it is reiterating its “underweight” rating on the local automotive industry on the lack of rerating catalysts for 2017 as automobile purchases are being held back by stringent lending guidelines by banks and weak consumer sentiment, and the strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar and Japanese yen is not sufficient to cushion the negative impacts on automakers’ businesses.
From January until June this year, Honda Malaysia sold 52,000 vehicles, slightly more than 50% of its total sales target for 2017.
When asked about the company’s business outlook for the remaining year, Akkbar said: “The market is tough. Nevertheless, for the first half of the year, we achieved [half] of our total sales target for the year and hopefully, the 100,000 units that we are aiming to sell can be achieved.”
“It’s not going to be easy but we will try our best to hit our target,” he added.