After spending time with the QV:E, the future looks exciting for Perodua
THERE used to be a time where you would need to be someone in position, trained or whose opinion mattered in the world to have your voice heard.
Social media changed that a long time ago. For good or for bad, social media is part of our society now and we need to adapt to it.
But social media is not always kind. Common sense often does not exist or sometimes does not matter at all. You don’t need to be very bright to be able to leave a comment on just about anything online.
Perodua was on the receiving end of a social media firestorm early this year when its QV:E was first launched. Malaysia’s first ever home-grown electric car was supposed to be something the country celebrated. But celebrate was the furthest thing on people’s mind then.
Perodua deserves credit for what it produced, flaws and all. And it even tried to go beyond the car to perhaps solve one of the biggest problems that no other car maker seems to be talking much about – battery degradation.
BMW Malaysia is one company that actively recycles its degraded batteries and then feeds them back into society. Rural communities benefit from these batteries as they are able to store power, provide electricity and improve lives.
Perodua went a different way. While developing the QV:E, the company found through its own research that people were wary of battery degradation, and thus shy away from adopting EV’s. That would not only affect sales but also slow down the national EV agenda as well.
Since Perodua was appointed as the national EV ecosystem champion by the government in 2023, it had to do something about the second life of batteries, either through recycling or by enabling them to be used in other ways.
But more importantly, it had to track where these batteries went, how they are used, and ensure they are disposed of properly.
To do that, Perodua decided that it was going to retain ownership of the battery. It would instead lease the battery to a buyer of the QV:E (who had to pay for the car anyway), at a sum of RM275 per month for nine years, which owners had to pay for on top of the usual hire purchase payments.
So you’re basically buying a car without a battery then have to lease the battery from the car maker.
Yes, it hurt my brain too when I first heard it, but I understood the reason. I wouldn’t have paid for it, and I get that others will not either, but I knew what Perodua was trying to do.
So that is cause of the social media storm that erupted soon after Perodua announced it publicly.
Recently, the company realised that people don’t really care about what happens about a battery after they sell a car.
So now, the company has backtracked and you can outright buy a QV:E with a battery for RM93,999. Or you can buy the car for RM69,999 and lease the battery for RM215 per month for nine years.
The good thing here is that in the event the battery fails or falls below 70% state of health, Perodua would replace the battery for free. I feel what Perodua has come up with is noble, but perhaps ahead of its time.
And after spending a week with the QV:E, I also salute what Perodua has achieved with the car.
Perodua built Malaysia’s first ever home grown in just two years. It did not rebadge it, it did not use a platform from other car makers, in fact it did not even go to other car makers and try to partner them. The QV:E is 100% Malaysian. Well, almost.
Magna Steyr was brought in as a consultant and helped to develop the platform. BYD supplied the electric motor. CATL supplied the battery.
It does not make sense for Perodua to build these things by themselves, so they worked with partners. This is common practise in the industry as all our cars have components developed by other companies.
After spending time with the QV:E, I have to say that it is not perfect, but it is a very, very good first attempt by Perodua.
And because the platform that it rides on is modular, so there will be more models to come that share the same platform. And apparently it can also be modified for future hybrid models as well.
So, while Perodua may have been on the receiving end of negativity of late, but the future is definitely exciting.
Besides, you know what they say about sticks and stones, Perodua’s engineers can only show that words don’t hurt them. I am excited to see what comes next from them.
