Perodua retained its pole position for the fifth consecutive year among car firms in Malaysia on the back of a 13 percent increase and all-time record sales of 188,600 units last year with the five-year old MyVI emerging as Malaysia's top selling model.

In the process, it commanded a 31.2 percent share of the country's car market.

"Last year's sales were driven by the strong demand for affordable compact cars compared with 166,700 units sold in 2009," Perodua's managing director Aminar Rashid Salleh said today.

He said the company's previous record sales of 176,400 units and a market share of 30.5 percent were achieved in 2008.

perodua myvi 260106 "We broke two records in 2010 - the first with the highest ever yearly registered sales and last December, Perodua achieved its highest monthly sales registration of 19,400 units, beating our previous record of 18,500 set in March 2010," he said in a statement.

He said the MyVI emerged as Malaysia's top selling model last year with 77,700 units sold, Alza the best selling multi-purpose vehicle with sales of 42,000 units while Viva notched up sales of 69,000 units.

"Our order book remains healthy and we are confident of maintaining this momentum this year," he said.

Meanwhile, at a press conference, Aminar said Perodua targeted to sell 195,000 units of vehicles this year driven by the sales of MyVI, Alza and Viva.

"The launch of a new model this year would also boost sales," he said.

He, however, declined to elaborate.

On outlook, he said the total industry volume for this year would be flat, or grow marginally, from the estimated 605,000 units sold in 2010.

"Last year was a good year for most car manufacturers and we expect growth to be flat or marginal in 2011," he said.

- Bernama