Late last year, local automaker Proton seemed to have struck a goldmine when they launched their brand new car, the Proton X50.

The B-segment quickly became of the hottest-selling vehicles in the country, notching more than 30,000 bookings to date.

As expected, Proton is having a tough time fulfilling these orders, and if you've booked yourself an X50 and have yet to receive your car, we have some bad news for you.

Unexpected delays

The carmaker, on Tuesday (2 February), released their monthly sales report and things are not looking too good for those who are still waiting for their cars.

According to the report, Proton has only managed to deliver 1,082 units of the Proton X50 in January 2021.

Overall, since its official launch in October 2020, Proton has managed to deliver only 4,809 units.

That figure is very far off from their estimated monthly delivery target of 4,000 units a month.

Yikes!

So, what's the reason for the low delivery rate, you ask?

CEO of Proton Edar Roslan Abdullah said in a statement that it is merely just a case of supply not being able to meet demand and not a reduction in bookings.

The current COVID-19 pandemic played a big role in that too.

“Our supply lines have been disrupted over the last few months by the coronavirus, making it difficult to ensure a steady flow of parts needed to build our cars,” he was quoted as saying.

And now that the Movement Control Order (MCO) has been extended to 18 February, further delays may be expected.

However, Roslan ensured Malaysians that the company is working hard to meet the demands.

“It’s something all car manufacturers have been facing for the past year, but we are hopeful that with the arrival of a vaccine things will stabilise by the middle of the year,” he was quoted as saying.

High demand for Proton X70 too

If you think you've dodged a bullet because you opted for the X50's older brother, the Proton X70, well, there's some bad news for you too.

In the month of January 2021, Proton had only managed to deliver 892 units of the X70.

Double yikes!

According to a memo that's been circulating on social media, Proton has received a total of 50,000 bookings for both the X50 and X70 accumulatively.

As the sales tax holiday is scheduled to end in June, Proton is now racing against time to deliver all the outstanding bookings by then.