Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Proton Car Sales In UK Exceed Full Year Target

Proton car sales in the United Kingdom (UK) has surpassed the company's full year target by 10 per cent despite a weaker demand for new cars in the country due to global economic slowdown.

Proton Cars (UK) Ltd managing director Brian Collier said the company's target had been to sell about 1,000 units this year.

The larger base of repeat customers and efforts to keep costs down helped the company to surpass its full year target, he said.

"We are actually 10 per cent ahead of our target, which is extremely nice given the difficult market condition here," he told Malaysian journalists here Wednesday.

He said car sales in the UK market was expected to drop to 1.7 million this year from 2.4 million two years ago.

Currently, Proton sells four models namely Gen.2, Persona, Satria and Savvy in the UK market. Its best selling model is the Savvy that makes up about 40 per cent of total sales.

Proton has sold about 150,000 cars in the UK since entering the market in 1989.

Collier said Proton Cars also sells cars that use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the UK market as demand for LPG vehicles was on the increase following the hike in petrol prices and environmental concerns.

"The only cars that we have converted to LPG are Persona and Gen.2," he said.

Last year, Proton Cars sold 150 LPG cars and its targets is to sell 200 units this year.