RAWANG, April 15 (Bernama) — Second national car manufacturer Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is set to be the region’s largest maker of compact cars this year.
It has allocated RM300 million this year to expand its production capacity to produce 250,000 cars annually by December, its managing director Syed Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said.
With a humble beginning producing 40,000 cars annually of the same capacity when it started operations in 1994, Perodua, he said, “now has 200,000-car capacity and we believe that our right capacity to be global and cost effective is to reach a quarter million capacity, that is 250,000 units.
“We hope to achieve a new milestone in terms of capacity, to produce 240,000 cars by July and by December it will be 250,000,” he told Bernama in an interview at the Perodua plant in Sungai Choh near here.
According to him, when talking about expanding capacity, normally the critical areas are the paint line, the body shop and the like.
Hafiz pointed out that the RM300 million is just for the factory equipment, excluding the model development cost.
“For Perodua, everything so far has been internally funded,” he said. “Since 1994, the company has probably sunk in close to RM2.5 billion but we have adequate cash reserves.”
He described the company’s ideology as going on a progressive mode rather than a “big bang” theory.
When Hafiz joined Perodua in December 2004, the production capacity stood at 150,000. By end 2006, it had gone up to 200,000.
He said Perodua achieved a milestone in October 2005 when its output registered one million cars.
On Perodua’s new model, Hafiz said it is affordable and cheap to maintain, in the one litre and less segment and to be launched “very soon.”
“As you know, planning for a new model takes 24 to 30 months, so this is something we have been working on diligently for the last two years.”
At that time, he said, the launch was for the middle of this year, “so we should be on track if not slightly early.”
Noting that Perodua’s strength has always been compact cars, with Myvi as its first 1.3 litre passenger car, Hafiz pointed out that last year, when the total industry volume reduced by 11 percent, Perodua achieved a 11 percent increase in the sales of its vehicles.
Perodua models in the market comprise Kancil, Kenari, Kelisa and Myvi. Myvi, launched in 2005, “received the most impressive response from customers,” and that, Hafiz said, led to Perodua striving to put out a new model every year.
“But we did not manage it in 2006. We did not expect the demand for Myvi to be so high. In fact, the first few months after we launched it, the waiting period was almost a year.
“Now, Myvi’s production has stabilised and buyers do not have to wait more than two months.”
Asked on the number of units of the new model to be produced, Hafiz said: “We are learning from the Myvi experience, where we were caught in the sense that before the launch, before the price was announced, before the name and model was even shown to the public, we had already collected 5,000-6,000 bookings.
“For the new model we have allocated something like 7,000 capacity every month,” he said.
“In fact, as we speak, we are trying to roll out the car soon. And the idea is to have about 2,000-3,000 stocks available before the launch date.”
— BERNAMA
