Malaysia surpasses Indonesia to become ASEAN’s largest car market in 2025

Jakarta, Thekabarnews.com—In 2025, Malaysia officially took over as ASEAN’s top automotive market from Indonesia. This had a huge impact on the area’s car business.

Indonesia’s GAIKINDO and the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) say that Malaysia sold 820,752 cars in 2025. Malaysia had more cars than Indonesia, which only had 803,687. In the end, Malaysia is the best country in ASEAN to buy a car.

Malaysia got bigger because its businesses, Proton and Perodua, did well. They make up about 60 percent of the whole market. It was also crucial to follow the rules set by the government. People were happy all year because the economy grew by 4.7 percent and electric cars (EVs) got tax breaks.

At the end of 2025, sales went up a lot because people started buying more. People rushed to buy fully imported electric cars before the tax breaks on them ended on December 31, 2025. This program helped Malaysia reach its goal of 820,000 units.

But things weren’t going well for Indonesia at home. Interest rates were high, and middle-class people had to pay at least 30 percent of the cost of a car up front. This made it challenging for them to get one. Because of this, sales of bulk cars fell by 7.2 percent. Indonesia did well with its exports, sending out 518,000 units. But there wasn’t much demand at home.

Experts say that many big companies around the world are changing the way they plan to spend their money. Some investors are even thinking about putting more money into Malaysia because the rules make it easier for businesses to run, and more people want electric cars.

Many of the changes have to do with power. There were more than 44,000 electric cars on the road in Malaysia in 2025. There are now more than twice as many of these as there were in 2020. The Proton e.MAS 7 and other brands like BYD and Tesla were the first to make electric cars more common.

The competition between Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, the three biggest carmakers in ASEAN, is getting worse as Vietnam gets closer to Thailand. Experts argue that variables like policy flexibility, infrastructure readiness, and incentives for electric vehicles are becoming more significant than just how many people live in an area when it comes to selecting who will control the market.

Source: seasia