How are Chinese car brands performing in the Malaysian market?
Data is here: In April 2026, the total new car sales in Malaysia reached 78,100 units, a year-on-year increase of 20.9%, while the cumulative annual sales were 269,800 units, up 3.1% year-on-year.
Now Chinese car brands in Malaysia have shifted from "marginal players" to "main force," not only established a foothold but also started to exert substantial pressure on Japanese brands.
Below I will recap the highlights from last month (April 2026) and then look at the specific performance of Chinese cars.
The Malaysian car market is now dominated by two local giants: Perodua (Second National Car) and Proton are taking nearly two-thirds (64.1%) of the business.
Especially Proton, backed by Geely, sales skyrocketed 47.9%, nearly doubling.
Previously, Chinese people traveling to Malaysia often saw Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, etc. everywhere on the streets, now their sales have all declined.
Among them Toyota sales dropped 9.7% last month, Honda dropped 8.3%. This illustrates a clear problem: people no longer blindly worship Japanese brands, they started turning to local and our Chinese brands.
Indeed, now Chinese cars in Malaysia are no longer fighting alone, but have become a "cluster" that can fight.
The ranking from this April shows the current momentum. Chery's sub-brand Omoda Jaecoo entered the top five for the first time, directly pushing down the traditional Japanese brands.
In general, in the first four months of this year, Chinese car brands Chery Omoda and Jaecoo have already jumped to fifth place, sales 5,215, basically secured their seat in the first tier. BYD ranked eighth with a cumulative performance of 3,674 vehicles. Chinese brands in Malaysia have moved from "small-scale operations" to a new stage of "scale breakthrough".
Previously the Malaysian market was Perodua and Proton two local brands eating the meat, Toyota and Honda drinking the soup. Now Chinese brands (especially Omoda Jaecoo and BYD) squeezed into top five, top eight, directly causing Honda to drop 8%, showing our cars really snatched the Japanese brands' cake.
Did you notice? Just in the top ten, there are Omoda Jaecoo, BYD, Jetour these Chinese brands. If adding Chery, Great Wall, Chinese brands on the list are already very conspicuous. This coordinated effort effect will make consumers feel "Chinese cars are a reliable choice".
Especially Geely invested local brand Proton, its electric vehicle e.MAS series sells very well. Although Proton counts as a Malaysian local brand, its new energy technology comes from China. This is equivalent to Chinese car technology using "borrowing a chicken to hatch eggs", achieving leapfrog overtaking in Malaysia.
So in my opinion, our Chinese cars have new design, high configuration, good intelligent experience, plus Chery, BYD, Geely these big factories have already built factories in Malaysia, costs have come down, prices also have competitiveness.
But Japanese cars decades accumulated reputation (durable, high resale value) are hard to overturn at once. Moreover Malaysia's charging piles are not that many, pure electric cars to fully popularize still need to wait a bit.
In general, Chinese brands in Malaysia are already no longer a "niche choice", but have become one of the mainstream options. As long as maintaining current product power and cost-performance ratio, replacing Japanese cars to become the "third major player" is only a matter of time.
What do you think?
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