KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 3): Proton Holdings Bhd's vehicle sales in Oct 2023 slid 1.9% year-on-year to 12,772 units from 13,013 units sold a year ago.

However, year to date (YTD) sales rose 12.3% to 129,604 units in the domestic and export markets, setting the national carmaker on track towards a fifth year of consecutive growth, it said in a statement on Friday.

"Compared with the previous month, sales in October grew by 4.4% as total industry volume (TIV) is forecast to have exceeded the 70,000-unit barrier for the third time in 2023.

"Proton’s overall market share is estimated to be 20.1% as YTD volume for the entire automotive industry has exceeded 645,000 units and is on track to break the all-time record set in 2022," it said.

The most popular model continues to be the Proton Saga with 6,322 units sold in October, boosting YTD sales to 57,806 units.

"This means the model has surpassed its volume from the whole of 2022 as a result of a 26% increase in demand for the popular A-segment sedan," it said.

Four models continued to lead their respective market segments in October, namely Proton X50 (2,021 units), Proton Persona (2,041), Proton X90 (479), and Proton Exora (393).

"Since its launch in Oct 2020, the country’s most popular B-segment SUV has achieved 100,210 units sold. This is the shortest time it has taken for any SUV to achieve the benchmark in Malaysia, which is a testament to its popularity with SUV buyers," it said.

Meanwhile, YTD sales for the Proton Persona stood at 20,655 units. "Compared with 2022, total sales are now 65.5% more and the model is on track to have one of its best sales years."

YTD sales of the Proton X90 stood at 3,914 units while the Proton Exora, which is in the final year of production, rose 11.5% YTD to 3,910 units

The Proton Iriz sold 589 units in Oct, bringing cumulative sales up by 37.2% to 6,633 units.

The Proton X70 sold 927 units in Oct, up by 18.9% over September.

“Following a relatively quiet September, automotive sales surged again in October as the market posted its second-best sales month for the year. With two full calendar months remaining, it is guaranteed the industry will set a new TIV record for the second year in a row, which reflects not only customer demand but also the amount of liquidity in the market.

“Proton has benefited from these market conditions and as our sales have gone up by 12.3% this year, we continue to outpace TIV [total industry volume] growth. This is despite some of the recent challenges faced, which were countered by quick and decisive action taken by the company. Heading in to the final two months of 2023, we are optimistic of exceeding our targets as we prepare to introduce more new models to position the company for a great start to 2024,” said Proton Edar chief exeuctive officer Roslan Abdullah.

At the market close, Proton's majority shareholder DRB-Hicom Bhd rose one sen or 0.71% to RM1.41, for a market capitalisation of RM2.73 billion.