Proton vs Perodua Car Registrations Over The Years Visualised
With the recent launch of the e.Mas 7, we thought it was a good time to see the age-old battle of Proton vs Perodua and see the trend that has been formed in this bitter rivalry.
With the help of this author’s favourite car data website, we can see exactly the lead Proton had in car sales and its eventual (spoiler alert) downfall.
The data collates JPJ registrations from January 2000 of Peroduas overall with Protons on the road and cumulatively by the end of 2000, Proton had a significant lead over the Perodua.
This was also five years before Perodua would release the game-changing Myvi and the advent of the Kancil, Rusa, Kenari, and Kembara.
Proton would hold its lead in the market for the next 14 years with some tragic releases like the Savvy in 2005 that was decimated by the Myvi, the Saga’s of increasingly poor quality, and the Preve, Suprima, and Persona combo.
Meanwhile, Perodua’s decade was built on the Myvi, Alza, Kelisa, and Viva, a smaller inventory that quickly became crowd favourites for their reliability and practicality.
November 2014 was the last time Proton held the lead in terms of cars registered at 2,312,984 vehicles compared to Perodua’s 2,304,023.
What happened in 2014? Well, the Axia was released, the #2 car in the market currently in 2024 in terms of registrations and the Myvi was pulling far ahead in terms of registrations.
From December 2014, Perodua would take the lead and the Bezza was still 2 years away. The Bezza is currently the most registered car in Malaysia.
The next 10 years for Proton would look a lot different as the company would discontinue many of its flailing models while being acquired by Geely in 2017.
Though the X70, X50, renewed Saga, Iriz, and Persona would help, the company would never again capture the market the way it did before 2014.
With a leaner inventory of 6 cars, Perodua has a more than 1.5 million-car lead over Proton who has to date, 8 car models.
If the trend continues, Perodua will continue to pull further away. As of November 2024, only two of Proton’s cars crack the top 10 most registered cars in Malaysia while Perodua holds 5 of the top 10 spots in the most registered cars in Malaysia.
Proton has made a lot of flashy moves in the past 10 years with new product after new product and it seems like consumers are not resonating with them.
2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Myvi and we’re sure Perodua has big plans for its flagship model.
Add to that, the teased Myvi EV that will likely come into the market at RM90k and we don’t like the chances of the e.MAS 7.
We wonder what the next 10 years will look like for the local rivals.
