HONDA MALAYSIA RISES STRONGER IN 2012

Kuala Lumpur, 9 March 2012 – Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (Honda Malaysia or the Company) today celebrated the anticipation of an exciting year ahead for the Company at its Annual Media Gathering. With the theme ‘It’s On’, Honda Malaysia shared about overcoming the challenges in 2011 and emerging stronger through it all. With much excitement and anticipation, Honda is optimistic of 2012.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia said, “2011 was a tough and challenging year for Honda. However, with the Challenging Spirit instilled in us by our founder, Soichiro Honda, we are proud to announce that we have been able to overcome the obstacles and have drawn important lessons from the experience. It has made us stronger and we are confident that 2012 would be an excellent year for Honda.”

Even though the past year was tough and challenging, first with the Japan earthquake in March and followed by the Thailand floods in October, Honda Malaysia managed to achieve a few significant milestones. Honda Malaysia maintained its commitment towards customer satisfaction and was awarded Highest Ranking in J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2011 Malaysia’s Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study^SM in September 2011 while the Honda City, CR-V and Accord ranked highest in J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2011 Malaysia’s Initial Quality Study (IQS) in November 2011.

“These awards showed the dedication and commitment of our associates and dealers in providing quality products and services. In spite of some setbacks, we managed to sell 32,482 units and retained our No. 2 position in the non-national car segment. The difficult year did end on a bright note, with the introduction of a star – the Honda CR-Z, which brought excitement to the hybrid automotive segment. 2011 was also the first year that the hybrid market emerged, and the Honda Insight became the best selling hybrid model with sales of 4,568 units in 2011 that represented 54% share in the segment,” added Mr. Ueno.

On the CSR front, Honda Malaysia’s Honda Dreams Fund (HDF) scholarship reached the milestone of fulfilling the dreams of 100 underprivileged youths in Malaysia in 2011.

Commenting on Honda’s plans for 2012, Mr. Ueno said, “2012 will be a better year. It will be a year of recovery for Honda Malaysia as we rise stronger from the challenges of 2011. I am pleased to announce that our manufacturing plant in Malacca will resume production on 20 March 2012 and will fully recover 100% production by the end of April 2012 with a production of 180 cars per day. Our highest priority at this moment is to reduce the backorders and to work closely with our dealers to ensure prompt deliveries. On the day we suspended the production in October 2011, we had 2,900 backorder customers who were waiting for delivery. After our production was affected and we became unable to reply on the exact delivery timing, we still received a lot of additional orders and currently we have more than 5,000 backorder customers for CKD models. I would really like to thank those customers who understood the situation, accepted to wait for the delivery, and continuously gave support towards Honda through the challenging times.”

With the recovery and exciting plans in store, Honda Malaysia targets to achieve 46,500 units of sales in 2012, which is 31% higher than its closing units of sales for 2011. With the continuity of buyers’ sentiment and exciting line-up of new models of both normal and hybrid vehicles in the pipeline, Honda Malaysia estimates the total industry volume (TIV) to reach more than 618,000 units and is targeting to achieve 7.5% of this projected TIV.

Table below: Figure 1: Total sales breakdown by models (2010 vs 2011)

The All-New CR-Z has received close to 1,000 confirmed bookings in the initial four months. “We are very pleased to see the growing acceptance towards green technologies and hybrid vehicles in Malaysia. Honda Malaysia promises to bring in more hybrid vehicle options while continuing to educate and create awareness on green technologies amongst Malaysians,” added Mr. Ueno.

At the event, Honda Malaysia reiterated its commitment towards its business in Malaysia. Honda had just completed the construction of the new warehouse in January with an investment of RM50 million. With the exciting plans and new models in store, Honda Malaysia also had a groundbreaking ceremony for the new RM40 million Pre-delivery Inspection (PDI) Centre and new Vehicle Quality Test Course at its Pegoh plant last week. The company will also look into the expansion of its supply capacities in order to continue serving customers in Malaysia better.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Ueno said, “As we look forward to 2012 with much hope and enthusiasm, we strive to become a company that society wants to exist through doing what we do best – providing products and services of the highest quality, and becoming a responsible corporate citizen.”