Perodua has reportedly collected 20,000 bookings for its new Axia as of today. The long-awaited successor to the Viva had already garnered close to 14,000 bookings at its launch last week, and the sales momentum is a clear sign of approval by thousands of Malaysians who are in the market for an affordable compact runabout.

While increased bookings do translate to better business for Perodua, it also results in an inevitable delay in delivery dates.

“We are humbled by the response shown by the general public of our latest offering and we wish to assure our customers that we are doing everything possible to deliver the Perodua Axia within a reasonable period” said Perodua President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh.

In light of increased public interest, Perodua is also extending showroom working hours up to midnight from 25 to 28 September, during which customers can test drive Perodua models of interest.

With prices starting from RM24,600 for the Standard and stretching to RM42,530 for the feature-packed Advance variant, the Axia’s value for money renders the spike in bookings unsurprising. But with Proton now joining the compact hatchback bandwagon with the Iriz, it will be interesting to see how things pan out for both Malaysian carmakers in the coming weeks.