KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Proton Holdings Berhad received over 20,000 bookings for its new X70 sports utility vehicle as of February, the carmaker said in a statement today.

Proton said the X70 also remained the best-selling SUV in the country, with 2,823 units booked last month, with 1,000 units already delivered to customers nationwide before the Chinese New Year festive season.

"Until the end of February, more than 20,000 orders were received for Proton’s first SUV, exceeding the company’s expectations, and making the company a leader in this segment, despite having explored the market only recently.

"Proton X70 is trying to attract the interest and strong support from SUV buyers in Malaysia. We are very thankful for the number of bookings made, and are working hard to get as many units registered and handed over to customers as soon as possible.

"Our next target is to hit the number of registrations for six months and for the rest of the year, and we are confident it can be reached,” Proton chief executive Dr Li Chunrong said.

For February, Proton said it sold 5,283 units for approximately 12.7 per cent of the market of 3 per cent up year-on-year.

Proton added that for January and February this year, sales increased 42 per cent for the same period last year.