2026 Mid-Year Sales: Is Proton Catching Up to Perodua?

For more than a decade, Malaysia's national car market was hardly a two-way battle. Since Perodua surpassed Proton in 2006, it has remained firmly ahead, widening the gap to more than four times Proton's sales by 2018. But the landscape is changing rapidly — the first half of 2026 has shown that the long-standing gap between Malaysia's two automotive giants is closing faster than ever.

Overall Sales: The Gap Narrows to 1.6:1

According to the latest first-half data, Proton registered 98,010 new vehicles between January and June this year, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 40.5% and marking its best first-half performance since 2002. Meanwhile, although Perodua remained firmly in the lead with 158,295 units, its registration fell by 4.7% year-on-year.

Key highlights of the market landscape include: 

Market Share Comparison: In the first half of this year, the two national brands, Perodua and Proton, jointly captured 62.6% of total vehicle registrations in Malaysia.

Rapidly Shrinking Gap: The sales ratio between the two giants stood at 2.4:1 in the same period last year, but has narrowed to 1.6:1 this year, marking the closest gap since 2013. Consequently, Proton's market share climbed to 23.9%, a new half-year high since 2011, while Perodua's share receded to 38.7%.

Key Growth Drivers for the Two Giants

Proton: A Dual Strategy of Best-sellers and New Energy Vehicles

Proton's strong rebound is driven not by a single model, but by growth across multiple segments:

Continued volume growth of the national favourite: Bolstered by a facelift upgrade launched late last year, Saga sales surged 42.8% to 44,234 units, cementing its position as a strong contender for the best-selling sedan. 

SUV lineup rising across the board: The X50 grew by 32.3%, the S70 by 38.4%, while the X90 registered an impressive 55.9% growth.

Booming new energy segment: Driven by the e.MAS 5 and e.MAS 7, nearly one-fifth of Proton's new registrations were electric or plug-in hybrid models, charting a brand new growth trajectory.

Perodua: Slowdown of Core Models

In contrast, Perodua's stronghold has shown signs of softening. Save for the Bezza, which bucked the trend with a marginal 2.8% increase, core models like the Axia, Myvi, Alza, Ativa, and Aruz all experienced varying degrees of decline.

Although the all-new SUV Traz recorded an impressive 10,753 units sold in the first half of the year, it also appears to have cannibalised demand from the existing Ativa and Aruz to some extent. Meanwhile, Perodua's electrification journey is still in its early stages, with its first EV, the QV-E, registering just 209 units during the same period.

Second-Half Spotlight: The Ultimate Battle for the Best-Selling Crown

The shifting market dynamics have set the stage for the most fiercely contested battle for the best-selling model in recent years. At the model level, the gap between the Perodua Bezza and Proton Saga stood at a mere 3,229 units at the mid-year mark (47,463 units for Bezza vs 44,234 units for Saga), a stark contrast to the 15,190-unit gap recorded in the same period last year.

More notably, Saga claimed the monthly sales crown in both January and May this year. Looking back, no Proton model has finished as Malaysia's best-selling vehicle since the Wira in 2003. More than two decades later, Saga is now within striking distance of ending that long-running streak.