Perodua is a company that plans everything in detail, and sticks to it. Annual sales records, a vice-like grip of its No.1 position and market share that’s now pushing 45% are testaments to the discipline and efficiency at play in Rawang. Heck, Perodua is now the No.2 carmaker in ASEAN after overtaking Honda in 2024. But an EV in 2025 wasn’t part of the plan.
It was the plan of the Madani government, and although Perodua will never say so publicly, the company was tasked to come up with an affordable 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.
With no way out, Perodua had to start from scratch. Unlike Proton, which can cherry pick models from Geely’s range of EVs, P2’s foreign partner Daihatsu did not have a suitable donor car. They had to do it all themselves. The public was given ‘progress reports’ at motor shows, and everyone sat up and took notice of “Episode 2” of the Electric Motion Online series at KLIMS 2024.
Fast forward a few months and we now have the third and final episode. Titled ‘Aspirations’, it sees the eMO-II morph into a crossover of sorts with a ‘fastback’ roof, like a smaller version of the Toyota C-HR+ EV that surfaced in March. Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said that this final prototype is “very very close to production”.
At the press day of the Malaysia Autoshow 2025, Zainal said that Perodua did not receive any form of R&D grants or financial incentives from the government despite having to develop its first EV from the ground up.
“In terms of grants or incentives, nothing is finalised, because there is a requirement for us to prove ourselves first. We have to prove ourselves and deliver the product under the NIMP (New Industrial Master Plan) 2030. We have to deliver the product.
“At the same time, there is a requirement for local development and local content. So we are in the process of trying to fulfil the requirements given by the government. As you know, any incentives must be compensated by the local economic growth generated by the incentive received,” he added.
“The government has given us some localisation targets and we will commit to it. Quite a number of our local vendors will participate, at this moment 41 or 42. Apart from the engineering-related items, the biggest challenge for us is how to create the EV ecosystem in our local industry,” he elaborated.
The original plan was for the EV to be a ‘limited production’ car (as in small volume, not limited edition), but Perodua is now dreaming bigger. “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.
“When we go for mass production, we’ll need to make sure of the participation from local vendors – that’s very important. If Perodua goes for mass production from the beginning but local content is still very low, there won’t be much meaning to the local industry. In order for us to go for mass production and higher volume, it’s not just about Perodua, but we have to look at our vendor system to be in line with our planning,” Zainal said, tying back to the ecosystem factor.
Pre-production of the EV will start in September at a new EV-specific plant located within P2’s Sg Choh base, ahead of a launch close to the end of the year.
For more on Perodua’s first EV, including a full walk-around and details on the unprecedented Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) battery leasing programme as well as a guaranteed future value scheme to protect the EV’s RV, click here.
GALLERY: Perodua eMO final prototype at MAS 2025
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
