SET TO IMPRESS: The newly launched Perodua Alza.
THE highly anticipated Multi-Purpose Vehicle from Perodua was launched yesterday, 10 days after the company opened up its order books to customers and as the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin gave the Alza his thumbs up, 3,500 customers have placed their deposit for it, sight unseen.
The Rawang carmaker has made careful use of both traditional and new media to drum up interest and curiosity in their biggest offering. A judiciously leaked picture here, an interesting morsel of information there and the Malaysian buying public is whipped into frenzy.
After nearly a year of waiting, the five-plus-two finally made its debut and from the initial response of those who attended the launch, it looks like Perodua has hit the nail right on the head.
Perodua Managing Director Datuk Syed Abdul Hafiz Abu Bakar said that the initial response for the Alza is better than they anticipated.
“The Perodua Myvi order book was opened 40 days before launch and it collected 4,000 pre-launch bookings but the Alza attracted nearly as much interest within 10 days,” he said.
Priced with a premium, the Alza is expected to win sales from customers who want a versatile yet stylish vehicle. Unconventionally, Perodua is aiming the Alza at urban singles who want a vehicle that can carry their friends on outings and young families with two children or less.
“This is why we say that the Alza is ‘Car one moment, MPV the next’, the product is targeted at those who need the added versatility but are not likely to use the third row of seat much,” says Syed Hafiz.
Perodua says their market survey shows that buyers in their target segment will likely use the third row of seats 10 per cent of the time or less but they want the added versatility and style at an affordable price.
According to Syed Hafiz, 70 per cent of the pre-launch orders are for the automatic version while 80 per cent of early bookers want the premium variant. Both the manual and automatic variant come with either basic or premium trim level.
He said that the company has 1,500 Alza in stock and added that if a customer were to book the MPV today, they will likely receive their vehicles by January.
Perodua’s initial production capability for the Alza is around 2,000 units per month but it is expected to rise to between 3,500 and 4,000 units, in line with the company’s projected monthly sales.
A banker met at the launch said that from experience, the number of actual interested customers who has put down a booking fee rather than a full deposit is usually three times higher than the actual order book size.
“Their sales people on the ground probably have another 10,000 bookings that has not been converted into the minimum deposit,” he said.
The Alza is an important vehicle for Perodua because it is the first product that customers can consider as a first car and it also allows their existing customers to upgrade to another product in the company’s lineup. This new found ability to retain upgrade customers will help the company to cut a bigger slice of the Malaysian automotive pie.
Price for the Perodua Alza starts at RMRM54,000 for the basic manual version in solid colour and tops at RM64,000 for the premium automatic version with metallic paintwork.
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