At yesterday’s Audi Q7 CKD start-of-production ceremony held at DRB-Hicom’s Pekan plant, Volkswagen Group Malaysia MD Dr Susanne Lehmann revealed that the company is planning to assemble hybrids and EVs here and export them to other ASEAN nations.
“We are working very hard with partners in government agencies and with our colleagues in HQ, and have put together a product portfolio, including exports and EV production from next year on.
“This (Audi Q7) is only the first step with MHEV (mild hybrid) to bringing in more PHEV (plug-in hybrids) and then completely EV in the following years,” she said.
Although she was tight-lipped on the specific models in question and which countries these would be exported to, a slide was shown depicting an ID.4 EV (which was officially previewed in Malaysia years ago) and the flags of Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We’re not going only for volume; we want to strategically extend and expand our portfolio, and suggest everyone to go electric step-by-step. We need to train people for new technologies to prepare the way for electrification,” Susanne said.
There’s the 3, 4, 5, 7 (6 for now is China-only), the unique Buzz, GTX versions and possible 1, 2 and 8 in the future. With so many IDs to choose from, which do you think is/are most suitable for Malaysia?
Volkswagen ID.4 previewed in Malaysia in 2022
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When is Toyota gonna bring in more CKD HEV and PHEV into our market?
We need more of Prius, Rav4 hybrid, Yaris Cross hybrid, Innova hybrid ..
Dumb UMW is only focusing on Corolla Cross hybrid and Camry hybrid that is out of reach for many people..
Nothing wrong with hybrid
Fuel price coming down
Pump baby pump
Checked. Flag ok!
Because we did not honour the ASEAN free trade agreement for motor vehicle, any vehicle made by us will be taxed unfairly by our neighbours just as we do to their cars. Only way is to honour the afta agreement, like we did under badawi where Thai made cars, were sold here. Najib came in and reversed the policy.