RAWANG (Jan 4): National carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) is expecting sales of over 2,000 units per month in the first year of the release of its new sports utility vehicle (SUV) Perodua Aruz.

Its newly-appointed president and chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said since the opening for booking of the seven-seater Perodua Aruz yesterday (Jan 3), the group has recorded about 300 bookings.

"About 60% of this is for the higher specifications," he told theedgemarkets.com today.

On the impact of rival Proton Holdings Bhd's recent launch of its latest model, X70 SUV, on Perodua's new model's release, Zainal said it has been in Perodua's strategic plan to launch Perodua Aruz sometime in January.

"We have planned from the beginning to launch [Perodua Aruz] sometime in January, and it so happened that Proton had also launched the X70 SUV around the same time as well. It is indeed part of our development strategy and it is as per our development schedule.

"It is challenging, but we will need to manage it," he added.

Zainal is also of the view that the Perodua Azur is not a direct competitor to the SUV X70.

"Our SUV is not really a C-segment vehicle. It is a B-segment car so it is a compact SUV. So I don't think it is in direct competition [to the X70]," he said.

Perodua Aruz is priced between RM72,200 and RM77,200 on-the-road before insurance.

It comes in two variants, the 1.5 X and the 1.5 Advance, and is available in five colours — Ivory White, Glittering Silver, Electric Blue, Granite Grey and a new Amazon Green.