Here are some progress updates on Perodua’s first-ever electric vehicle (EV). At today’s launch of the P-Circle app, Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad shared that pilot production of the EV has already started at the company’s Rawang base, and that the launch will definitely happen before the end of the year, as promised.
The Perodua chief said that the price target will remain unchanged, which is ‘maximum RM80k’. Proton recently opened order books for the eMas 5 EV, a rebadged Geely Xingyuan, with a price range of RM60k to RM80k.
Apple-to-apple comparison, head-to-head battle then? Not quite, as P2’s targets include a real-world range of between 400 to 410 km, 0-100 km/h between six and seven seconds and top speed around 165 km/h. The eMas 5 Premium has a range of 325 km and 0-50 km/h (not 100) time of 3.9 seconds, so the P2 is a more sophisticated EV. A main difference is that P2 EV owners will not own the car’s CATL battery – it will be via leasing.
Zainal said today that Perodua will eventually target sales of 2,500 units of the EV a month. If that sounds substantial, it is, because the current leader in the EV market – the Proton eMas 7 – averages at just under 700 units per month.
Interestingly, P2 wasn’t always so bullish on the prospects of its EV, which it was tasked by the government to produce despite foreign partner Daihatsu not having a suitable donor car. With no way out, Perodua had to start from scratch and developed Malaysia’s first homegrown EV. To make things even more ‘interesting’ the government announced the deadline publicly, which meant that P2 had to deliver in 2025, by hook or crook.
“Based on the product that we have, based on surveys, we have to change our direction – now we’re going for mass production. We’ll need a bit of time for that. As a start it’ll be 500 units a month and then we’ll ramp up production to over 2,000 units per month,” Zainal said in May when unveiling the ‘Aspirations’ final prototype.
The point of having a homegrown electric car is also to build up a local ecosystem for EVs, and Perodua is targeting around 50% local content for its EV by the middle of 2026, which is an admirable goal. This most probably won’t include key components such as the battery and electric motor – which will come from China – but there are plans to localise these too. However, sufficient volume is needed before this makes business sense.
The P2 chief also said that the EV will not be parked under a sub-brand with its own dealerships, like how Proton does it with eMas. Instead, it will be sold alongside ICE-powered in the same showrooms. Existing after-sales service personnel are currently undergoing training to support the new EV.
Read all about Perodua’s first EV here, and find out more about the just-launched P-Circle app that its owners will use. Just around the corner now!
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