What’s the biggest cost in an electric vehicle? What do buyers fear going wrong the most? I bet your answer to both is ‘battery’. So, would it be better if your EV’s battery doesn’t belong to you and you bear no responsibility for it? That’s the model Perodua is looking into for its first production EV, which is due in Q4 this year.
According to Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad, the company’s EV could be priced around RM80,000 without the battery, which means that P2 will be the first to introduce battery leasing in Malaysia. It’s the best way to sell the car at that price, he said at a media gathering in KL last week, reported by Harian Metro.
“The battery will be leased to buyers. The ‘rental’ fee is the minimum, and based on surveys by Perodua, many are in favour of this method,” he said, adding that the EV battery leasing scheme lowers the cost of the car and ensures that owners will always have a battery in the best condition.
Another major concern that the general public has about EVs – and P2 prospects surely aren’t the type that ‘can afford’ or are willing to lose a big chunk of the car’s purchase price – is resale value. It’s plain to see that depreciation for EVs are way beyond the level we’ve seen with ICE cars – the risk of a degraded battery that will be very costly to replace is factored in the poor RV. Battery leasing erases this issue.
Zainal also said that with battery leasing, the responsibility of recycling the battery at the end of its life is with the car manufacturer. It’s not talked about often, but battery recycling is an important aspect of selling EVs and it’s something that Perodua wanted to study from the Ativa Hybrid subscription project that was launched in 2022. In Malaysia, only BMW has publicised battery recycling plans.
“For this EV project, Perodua is using self-developed technology with the help of local and foreign vendors,” Zainal said. It was previously revealed that Perodua’s EV battery will be sourced from CATL, one of the top makers of EV batteries in the world.
Why is Perodua coming up with an EV and what’s the progress? Here’s a brief recap. A publicly announced deadline by the government has forced the market leader to come up with an EV from scratch. That’s because unlike Proton, P2’s foreign partner Daihatsu does not have a suitable donor car, and the R&D team in Rawang have been on an EV crash course. The process is still ongoing, but as we saw with the eMO-II Concept from KLIMS 2024, much progress has been made.
Expect an LFP battery from CATL, which will provide around 400 km of range. At KLIMS 2024, a price range of RM50k to RM90k was mentioned, and Perodua believes that its EV will be the cheapest in the market, even after the current RM100k minimum price for CBU imported EVs is lifted.
The images you see above are Theophilus Chin’s take on the production eMO-II. Basically, he stripped off the obvious showboating of the KLIMS showcar, replacing them with realistic cues. P2 says that the eMO-II has all of the essence of the company’s first EV and the production car will have a variance of just a few percent. We’ll see in Q4.
Meanwhile, what do you think of Perodua’s battery leasing idea? Based on the points above, would it erase most EV-specific concerns if the total cost is reasonable?
GALLERY: Perodua eMO-II Concept at KLIMS 2024
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one insurance for bare car (a car that cannot move, can we still call it a car
?) and another insurance for the leased battery, since the battery does not belong to the owner, the leasing company is going to pay for the battery insurance and charge a premium on the car owner is it?
Just rebadge the
Yaris Cross hybrid
Model from Indonesia
smart move by P2
Perodua better offer a hybrid version with petrol engine as generator (just like Nissan e-power).
Hybrid car is too heavy so perodua can’t maintain feathers weight fuel efficiency claim anymore
We’re still waiting for the eSmart system from Daihatsu using the series-hybrid system, similar to Nissan Kicks. The Ativa hybrid owners group is claiming very efficient fuel consumption figures of up to 31km/L highways and averaging 22km/L in cities.
I bet the prototype will always be prototype, the best way is to join venture with chinese automaker like Wuling and sourced one of their model for ckd. Seriously the prototype look so ugly interior and with that cost will not sell well.
you sound like someone who never heard of the brand perodua.
That’s right.
Can sell through CelcomDigi Maxis UMobile Astro for the subscription?
Deactivation of batteries supply if arrears 60 days, imagine driving on the road suddenly lost power…..
80k, my car alone better look like your concept car lol
RM80k and without battery??? Other car manufacturer can sell below RM80k WITH battery.
Also considering the minimum RM100k selling price imposed to foreign EV manufacturer, looks like Perodua can price their EV how ever they want with whatever spec they want as long as just below RM100k.
What the rakyat is expecting is a RM50K EV with battery & full safety suite, but that’s not going to happen due to lack of competitors to Perodua & Perodua’s greed.
Habe u ever heard Economies of scale?
P1 is a small player, and coming up with an EV built up by themselves (top hat) without Daihatsu’s help alone is itself a. accomplishment.
None of Japanese EVs can compete with the Chinese in terms of cost, tech & manufacturing scale. So don’t expect Perodua can produce a B segment EV car at rm50k.
Agreed. Considering battery cost is about 40% of the cost of the car, a Rm80k car without battery will be more than Rm130k if comes with battery, that even more expensive than Proton eMAS 7 which is a C segment EV and Perodua EMO II is just a B segment EV
50k u bikin sendiri la bro
Perodua don’t dare to give us both options, one price with battery (with x years of warranty) and another without battery (leasing option).
If have, people will realized the leasing is way more EXPENSIVE. If you drive and own the car for long term (5+ years), the total amount you pay for the lease is enough for you to buy another set of brand new battery.
Leasing don’t mean you get new battery every couple of year, you only get replacement battery (New?? Maybe) IF the battery capacity dropped below certain threshold. Tesla warranty their EV battery for 8 years, 240000km, capacity threshold at 70%.
Perodua partner is Japan’s Dahatsu & Toyota. While EV leaders are China, Japan are waayyy behind ij EV….just stick to hybrid’s car where the Jap are still competitive even-though China are having advantage wt their high tech battery’s technology.
As if the governments gives options other than ev..
It’s hard to imagine how such a low volume car producer can compete with the Chinese who produces high volume cars for their domestic and global markets. EVs are not just about the battery. The entire software management is equally important. Even big car companies are still struggling with EVs. We don’t have the volume, investment, supply chain and expertise to make good and cheap EVs. Gimmicky pricing models are not going to help and consumers end up as losers if we tax other makes unfairly just to justify this.
aiyoooo BYD dolphin can sell for 60k only in china.. why perodua said cant make below than 80k.. without battery summore. what BS is diz
you will own no battery, you will lives in pod, you will eat ze bugs and you will be happy
If I don’t own the battery, the car should be priced at least 50% cheaper. Remember how current EV automakers priced battery replacement more than the car itself?
If like this i better stay in US or Europe where their EV price more affordable compare malaysia
greedy p2, buy their ev and become their slave forever (leasing the battery). keep it for yourself, many other choices WITH battery
This is stupid, BYD can sell a 7 seater EV, with battery included, plus it is a complete CBU unit, at around 100k.
Haven’t even show us the Real Production car, and now we are starting to see some Red Flags…… wonderful. At this point, I don’t know how UMW and Perodua are going to actually manufacture and calculate the Actual Cost for this car. Because EVs are just as expensive as ICE cars. And since here in Malaysia our whether here is most of the time Hot so will the Heat affect the car’s range? Or how much does it takes to replace the Whole battery pack……. when the Battery’s life is dead?
Give battery leasing as an option don’t make it mandatory so the rakyat have a choice. Also if the car is not a copy or rebage of something like the BYD Seagull then Perodua is free to design the car and CATL battery pack in such a way that bad battery sub-lots are easy to remove and replace in small amounts without tearing apart the under part of the car and replacing the whole battery pack. This will reduce battery repair costs for customers and create spin off EV battery industries and work shops in the country. Above all make sure the software design and development is within Perodua and not outsourced by following Tesla’s example. The most critical item in an EV is not the battery but the software.
Yup…agreed…software controls all the functions inside the car including the battery…
Battery leasing? If tied to monthly, then not worth for those who travel light. Suggest tied to mileage.