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Nissan overtakes Honda as second largest non-national: Following the launch of the Almera, Nissan has overtaken
Honda as the 2nd largest non-national marque with an 8% market share – a significant jump vs.5.4% share in October 2012
and 4.8% in Nov 2011. Nissan’s passenger car segment – which purely reflects the launch of its new B-segment – grew by
some 85% MoM, or an absolute volume increase of >1800 units.

• Toyota resilient despite new competition: Toyota sales were resilient (+7% MoM), despite its Vios having been over 5
years in the market and despite the entry of a lower priced competing model. However, we note that UMW has much leeway
to respond in terms of promotional rebates given that margins for an end-of-life model tends to be higher as much value chain
depreciation would have been taken in the early years.

• Where’s the volume coming from?: We believe that Nissan Almera is currently taking away market share from Proton in
particular, and to a certain extent Honda and Korean marques. Pricing of the Almera (at RM64K-77K) overlaps that of Proton
Preve (RM60-73K), while we suspect there was uptrading from Persona buyers (priced at RM50K-59K). Estimated November
sales volume of circa 2K for the Almera could not have possibly come entirely from non-national B-segments as Honda sales
was only down by 199 units (-5% MoM) in November while Toyota sales remained pretty strong (+7% MoM). Proton sales as
a comparison fell 21% MoM in November, or an absolute volume decline of 2,797 units.
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Source : AmResearch