704,603 passenger vehicles in 2025, 5.4 per cent lower YoY. On the other hand, commercial vehicle production reached 43,177 units, 5.6 per cent less compared to 2024.
Higher TIV compared to TIP mirrors Malaysian consumers’ preference for CBU EVs in 2025. The year-end expiry of CBU BEV financial incentives primarily drove this growth in EV sales and consumer demand.
In Malaysia, local brands Perodua and Proton reign supreme. With only 2 non-Malaysian brands in the country’ s top 10 best-selling models. Perodua sold a total of 359,904 units and capturing 47.5 per cent of the market in 2025, while main competitor Proton sold less than half at 151,561 units.
Toyota remained Malaysia’ s top foreign car brand with 139,085 units sold overall in 2025. Honda claimed the 4th spot after Toyota, selling 75,599 units during the year.
Omoda Jaecoo fell behind at the 5th spot with a large difference from Toyota but grew extensively by 153 per cent thanks to favourable consumer response of the Jaecoo J7. The brand sold 17,845 units for the year, putting it slightly ahead of BYD. Though it placed 6th, the Chinese EV maker is Malaysia’ s top NEV brand for the year with 14,407 units sold. Mitsubishi followed closely behind, selling 13,856 units while Chery’ s 2025 sales came to 12,939 units.
In 2025, Mazda’ s overall sales did not breach 10,000 units. The Japanese automaker’ s sales performance came to 9,589 units. Lastly, Mercedes-Benz took the 10th spot with 8,976 units sold for the year.
SINGAPORE
Nearby, Singapore’ s overall car sales for 2025 came to 62,671 units, growing 21 per cent
YoY. This surge in Singapore’ s TIV can be attributed to rising EV sales and the Singaporean government’ s Electric Vehicle Early Adoption Incentive( EVEAI). This program, extended until 2027, allows consumers a tax incentive of up to SGD 22,500 or AUD 25,206. However, these financial incentives only apply to BEVs. Those who continue to purchase vehicles with Internal Combustion Engines( ICE) will face surcharges of up to SGD 35,000( AUD 39,277).
Thanks to the EVEAI program and its extension, EVs made up 45 per cent of Singapore’ s new cars in 2025. This is a notable improvement from 2024, where EVs made up only 34 per cent of Singapore’ s car market.
‘‘ Despite a pivot towards hybrids in Western markets, Singapore’ s EV momentum remains strong, fuelled by a growing charging network and generous incentive policies,” said National University of Singapore Business School adjunct professor, Dr Zafar Momin.
Majority of 2025’ s vehicle sales came from passenger vehicles, which sold 52,678 units and grew by 22 per cent YoY. Similarly, commercial vehicle sales also rose. There was a total of 9,761 commercial vehicles sold in 2025, growing 15 per cent YoY.
Where luxury car brands once topped sales, Singapore proved to be a strong market for EV brands, especially for BYD. The Chinabased brand came out on top for the second consecutive year, becoming the only brand( along with its luxury arm, DENZA) to hit double-digit sales with 11,184 units sold and acquiring 21.2 per cent market share.
Once Southeast Asia’ s auto king, Toyota( including Lexus) was knocked off its no. 1 spot and came in second place with sales of 7,466 new vehicles. Its yearly performance has been steady at over 7,000 units since 2024.
BMW maintained its 3rd place spot from 2024, performing similarly with 5,091 units sold in 2025. Fellow German automaker Mercedes-Benz followed with 4,871 units sold, only 300 units up from last year. Honda trailed closely behind with 4,845 units sold, growing by around 1,000 units from 2024 and maintaining its 5th place rank.
Tesla ranked 6th place, selling 3,476 units in 2025. Its increase from 2,384 units in 2025 can
24 ISSUE 57 FEBRUARY 2026 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU