The Proton S70 has just had the best month of its life. The C-segment sedan registered 3,235 units in August 2026, according to the latest road transport department (JPJ) data, up 71.5% from July’s 1,886 and comfortably beyond its previous high of 2,377 set in April. It was the biggest mover in the top 10 after the e.MAS 5, climbing from 13th place to seventh.
The S70 has been a top-10 car in seven of this year’s eight months, finishing sixth in February and May and seventh in April, June and now August. July’s slide to 13th was an outlier. For comparison, the car spent the whole of 2025 between 10th and 17th place.
Since the S70 went on sale at the end of 2023 its monthly registrations had never topped 2,377, and its launch-era peak was 2,290 in February 2024. August beat the old high by 858 units.
The S70 outsold the Honda City (1,526 units) by more than two to one in August, its widest margin over the Honda in any month so far, and finished well ahead of the Toyota Vios (1,955) and Honda Civic (1,165). Year to date the S70 has 17,953 registrations, putting it ahead of the City on 16,009 and the Vios on 13,018, and making it Malaysia’s fifth best-selling passenger car of 2026 excluding SUVs and MPVs, one place ahead of the e.MAS 5 and behind only the Perodua Bezza, Proton Saga, Perodua Axia and Perodua Myvi.
As for what caused the jump, the data rules out a fleet order: red S70s, the colour of the Teksi Madani taxis, made up just 4.1% of August’s registrations, the lowest share of the year, while black (1,107 units) and blue (964) accounted for the bulk of the month, which points to ordinary showroom demand.
The S70 was a big part of a big month for Proton. Proton reported its best-ever domestic sales performance in August, and in the JPJ registration data the brand rose 18.4% to 20,141 units, cutting the ratio to Perodua from 1.87 to one in July to 1.46 to one.
There is likely more to come. The two new Lite and Prime variants take the S70 to a new level of affordability, with the naturally aspirated 1.5 litre engine bringing the entry price down to an estimated RM60,000 or less, and they are likely to push registrations higher still as deliveries get under way.
Want to dig deeper? Our car sales data tool lets you explore and analyse Malaysian new-vehicle registrations in detail, from monthly and yearly trends for every make and model to rankings by brand, body type and fuel, plus dedicated views for the EV market and the national carmakers, all built on the same JPJ data behind this story and updated every month.
The post Proton S70 posts its best month ever – 3,235 units in August, back in the top 10 even before Lite/Prime launch appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
