Another year has passed with the Perodua Myvi at the top of the Malaysian market yet again. In its 2021 sales performance press release, Perodua confirmed that the evergreen hatchback continues to be the nation’s bestselling car, despite competition from outside and even within the national carmaker itself.
In all, the company sold 47,525 of the things last year, outstripping the next closest, the smaller Axia, to the tune of nearly 5,000 units. We dug into the archives and found that the Myvi has been Malaysia’s bestseller for 12 years since its first full year of sales in 2006, temporarily relinquishing its crown to the Axia from 2015 up to the launch of the latest third-generation model in 2017. Ahead of the launch of the facelifted model, Perodua sold a total of 1.3 million Myvis, of which 277,329 units were of the third gen.
Most impressively, the Myvi held onto its lead even though it spent most of the year being the oldest model in Perodua’s lineup. The facelift, which was finally introduced in November, brought with it a refreshed Ativa-inspired design and long-overdue features like LED daytime running lights, revamped touchscreen infotainment and advanced driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control and lane centring assist.
Perhaps the biggest new feature was the Ativa’s D-CVT, which became standard fitment (no more manual, boo) and replaced the long-serving four-speed automatic gearbox. It’s mated to the same NR naturally-aspirated Dual VVT-i engines as before – a 94 hp/121 Nm 1.3 litre unit and a 102 hp/136 Nm 1.5 litre mill.
Despite prices having risen across the board – the range is now priced from RM45,700 to RM58,800 – the Myvi will almost certainly retain its “king” status this year. Perhaps it could even crest the 50,000 unit mark?
GALLERY: 2021 Perodua Myvi 1.5 AV facelift