March has seen BYD consolidate its hold on the electric vehicle market in Malaysia, despite having ceded the individual model lead to the hot-selling Proton eMas 7, JPJ registration data shows. The Chinese EV specialists recorded 1,020 registrations last month across its five models, versus 737 for just one Proton.
The upshot of this is that there is now quite a bit of daylight between the two brands in the year-to-date stakes – 2,159 units for BYD, 1,738 units for Proton. The war between the companies will reach new heights this month, as the recently-introduced BYD Atto 3 Ultra has received a massive price cut and is now around the same price as the eMas 7.
Once BYD’s biggest competitor, Tesla is now a distant third with just 627 units sold in the first quarter of the year, as deliveries of the much-anticipated facelifted Model Y – codenamed Project Juniper – are only slated to kick off this month.
It won’t be in third for much longer if BYD has anything to do with it – its premium offshoot Denza outsold the American carmaker in March, with 204 units of its D9 MPV registered versus 171 for Tesla. This strong performance has put it sixth in the YTD standings with 238 units, despite registrations only kicking off with just 34 units in February.
Ahead of Denza are BMW and Zeekr, which are locked in a close fight in the premium stakes, registering an identical 157 EVs last month. Zeekr’s underperformance in the earlier part of the year – including it selling only 11 units in February – means it trails Munich YTD with 269 units versus 468.
In seventh place sits Porsche, its electric offensive seemingly paying off with 74 units registered in March, bolstered by strong sales of the new Macan and possibly lots of recon Taycans. After a slow start to the year, MG has finally outsold Xpeng (barely, with 73 registrations versus 72), but the latter’s consistency means it holds on to seventh YTD (227 units for Xpeng, 163 units for Porsche, 155 units for MG). Rounding off the top ten is MINI, with 46 EVs registered in March and 120 units YTD.
Elsewhere on the list, Hyundai was back in the game last month, selling almost as many new EVs (41 units) as MINI and Volvo (43 units). Meanwhile, smart and its former owner Mercedes-Benz were tied for 15th at 18 units registered in March; they were both overhauled by Chery, which registered 30 units of its Omoda E5 last month. Neta finally posted double-digit sales numbers last month with 17 units registered, putting it 18th.
Having held on to the lower reaches of the list this year, Dongfeng has dropped out of the top 20 having registered just three units of its Box in March. Its spot on its list was taken by – surprise, surprise – Jaguar, which registered a whopping six units of its I-Pace.
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