CSH Alliance is selling its electric vehicle (EV) business arm – Alliance EV (AEV) – to glovemaker Hong Seng Consolidated (HSC) for RM20 million cash. HSC’s acquisition of AEV is said to complement the former’s collaboration with US-based EoCell on setting up a local battery production hub.
Earlier this year, it was announced that AEV had obtained the manufacturing licence for the assembly of BYD T3 electric van, with plans to locally assemble (CKD) the vehicle at a plant within the DRB-Hicom Automotive Hi-Tech Valley (AHTV) in Tanjung Malim, Perak. The company previously announced it had acquired three adjoining plots of industrial land totalling 55.3186 acres in the area.
CKD operations were only scheduled to take place after completely-built-up (CBU) units of the T3 are brought in for sale, and it was reported at the time that AEV would apply for approved permits (APs) to do so.
According to reports by The Edge and NST, CSH said despite AEV’s prospects and progress in its EV venture, the business would require “extensive resources” and “substantial working capital”, prompting it to realise the value of the investment via the sale.
Meanwhile, HSC executive director Lester Chin said the company aims to develop the EV manufacturing plant to gain footing in the growing EV market. “This is also to increase demand for eco-friendly transportation and the government’s active promotion of EV use by offering incentives and subsidies to buyers and manufacturers,” said Chin.
“We are also looking to be a contract assembler for other EV brands and players to help them facilitate the set-up of completely knocked-down production lines in Malaysia at a later stage,” he added. AEV has all the prerequisite business components ready for the EV sector.
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I wonder if TCM can block T3 from being put on sale in Malaysia on the pretence that the T3 is highly probable to be a reverse engineered NV200.