Perodua’s maiden SUV, the Aruz, which was officially launched on Tuesday, is available in two variants, priced at RM73,000 and RM78,000, and is set to take a share off the non-national B-segment sedan and MPV, analysts added. — Bernama photo
KUCHING: Perodua has been forecast to hit a record total industry volume (TIV) this year as analysts believe the new Aruz SUV plugs an important gap in Perodua’s model mix.
Perodua’s maiden SUV, the Aruz, which was officially launched on Tuesday, is available in two variants, priced at RM73,000 and RM78,000, and is set to take a share off the non-national B-segment sedan and MPV, analysts added.
In a report, the research team at MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd (MIDF Research) highlighted: “The Aruz plugs an important gap in Perodua’s model mix after having been absent from the SUV segment since 2009. The Aruz is now Perodua’s highest priced model – previously, the Alza was its highest, priced at RM51,490 to RM62,690.
“Given the large circa RM10,000 gap in price points within a price sensitive segment, we think the Aruz is unlikely to cannibalise the Alza in a big way.
“More importantly, the Aruz fills a vacuum in the less than RM80,000 SUV segment – the Aruz would be the cheapest seven-seater SUV from the mainstream brands to be available in the market giving Perodua a strong advantage.”
It noted that the Haval H1 (a five-seater SUV from a Chinese brand), although entailing cheaper pricing of RM59,000 to RM72,000, has not really been selling in the market and is not a direct competitor given its much smaller size.
“Based on the Aruz’s price points of RM73,000 to RM78,000, we expect the non-national B-segment as well as the lower-end MPV/crossover segment to be impacted by increased competition.
“Of the three major non-national players, we think Honda will be impacted the most followed by Nissan and Toyota,” MIDF Research opined.
As for the possibility of the Aruz going head-to-head against with Proton’s latest X70, the research team believed that there is little competition between the two SUVs.
“We expect the X70 to encroach into the share of non-national B-segment SUVs, C-segment sedans and C-segment MPVs,” it added.
Meanwhile, it raised its forecast on Perodua financial year 2018 (FY18) TIV to 227,240 units (up 11 per cent year-on-year), well exceeding its earlier target, though the outperformance was partly driven by temporary strength from the June to August tax holiday period and is not sustainable.
“We have revised our FY19F Perodua TIV higher to 241,000 units (from 219,000 previously), representing six per cent y-o-y growth, after factoring in the Aruz. FY19F should see Perodua TIV hitting a new record after hitting a new high in FY18F,” it added.