Malaysia on right track to be EV power house

 Geely and Tesla..and conducive ecosystem provide support

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is on the right path to become an electric vehicle (EV) powerhouse in South-East Asia with the government aggressively promoting a conducive EV ecosystem, supported by strong business commitment shown by two world-renowned automotive companies, Geely and Tesla.

Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) president Mohd Shamsor Mohd Zain said the entry of China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co, or simply Geely, and United States-headquartered Tesla Inc into the Malaysian market serves as a clear indication of the country’s relevance in the regional automotive landscape.

He said the two auto makers, with their vast global experience and access to leading technologies, could introduce new ideas and ways of doing businesses to the local automotive sector, such as high-tech research and development (R&D) in new products that might not be currently available in the country.

“For example, electrification means a change in vehicle components, with more focus given to battery manufacturing and other specialised components for EVs.“We would also see the industry adopting new skillsets and infrastructure suited to varying degrees of electrification – from mild hybrids to fully electric vehicles – besides reskilling or upskilling the automotive workforce, whilst opening up new opportunities for innovation, R&D and high-value manufacturing of components,” he told Bernama.

He added that with the right government support, infrastructure and policies in place, Malaysia is well positioned to be a regional hub supporting the global growth of EVs given its strategic positioning and favourable economic conditions.

Malaysia is a major electrical and electronics manufacturing hub in South-East Asia; therefore, he said, automakers and automotive investors can seamlessly leverage on this capacity to secure their supply chains for growing their production of next-generation vehicles.

The components sub-sector can be capitalised on to service the whole automotive value chain, covering semiconductors, sensors, automotive electronics, transceivers, batteries, and vehicle assembly.

Mohd Shamsor said with more than 40 brands in the domestic market currently, the entry of new players would undoubtedly add greater excitement to the market and generate more interest among consumers.

Besides, it would also create a buyer’s market by providing more choices and increasing competitiveness, keeping all automotive players on their toes and resulting in better services and offerings for consumers.

“Malaysia may be new to the EV industry, but with the solid support of the current government and progressive national policies coupled with fast-growing consumer uptake, we foresee rapid holistic growth in our local EV market.

“New players in the EV space will lead to greater competition, which in turn will spur more investments from automotive players and improvements in the quality of products and services offered,” he pointed out.

Additionally, Mohd Shamsor said, with more EVs, including the completely knocked down models, coming into the country, there would also be new business opportunities for the vendors.

Meanwhile, Icats University College pro vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Shazali Abu Mansor said EV is still considered as a niche market for the domestic automotive landscape, and that strong demand and supply are equally important for the industry to penetrate the Malaysian market at a meaningful rate.

He said as Malaysia manages its competitive advantages according to world standards, major adjustments in the structure of employment, tax, and subsidy allocation are inevitable in the journey towards creating critical mass.

“In some prominent EV countries, carbon tax is implemented to encourage both consumers and manufacturers to shift towards more environment-friendly vehicles.

“Malaysia used to be an agriculture and commodity-based country, but now the economy boasts robust manufacturing and service sectors, and is going to be a high-tech nation by 2030.

“We must move on and make way for new changes,” he reckoned.

Source link

Disrupting force

https://mystar.pressreader.com/article/281522230583126

As a trailblazer of electric vehicles, Tesla’s official arrival in Malaysia is rewriting the rules on local EV adoption and ownership experience.

EVs powering homes during blackouts

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2023/07/27/evs-powering-homes-during-blackouts

Tesla will make Malaysia's EV ecosystem more competitive

10 Reasons Why Tesla Is A Disruptive Force In The Industry

Malaysia Set To Be EV Powerhouse in South East Asia!

Geely's RM30bil investment in Tanjung Malim a boost for ...

Geely to invest RM45.6 billion to turn Tanjung Malim into ...

https://paultan.org/2022/07/05/proton-unveils-1-5l-tgdi-engine-assembly-line-in-tanjung-malim/proton-tanjung-malim-engine-plant-1-5-tgdi-assembly-line-launch-malaysia-official-9/

Geely to invest US$10bil to make Tanjung Malim ...

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2023/07/18/geely-to-invest-us10bil-to-make-tanjung-malim-the-region039s-largest-auto-city---anwar

Geely Holding Group and Changan Automobile Signed a ...

Chinese auto giants Geely and Changan sign strategic ...

https://global.geely.com/en/news/2023/geely-changan-signature-cooperation-framework-agreement

Related posts

Musk’s Starlink lands in Malaysia

Elon musk's Starlink satellite internet is now available for subscription in Malaysia #starlink

Honda Malaysia leads the way

IT has been a good year for Honda Malaysia as its sales figures from January to November has steadily increased to 69,150 units


This is a 34% increase compared to the brand’s total sales of 51,550 units last year..

In fact, Honda Malaysia claims that it is now the market leader in the non-national passenger car market, taking away the title from UMW Toyota.

According to Akkbar Danial, general manager for Honda Malaysia and also the company’s head of marketing, Honda Malaysia is well on track to hit its 2014 target, which is 76,000 units.

“The tsunami and earthquake in 2011 disrupted our production and parts supply but we restructured our business operation and devised a threeyear plan to achieve a high volume sales in Malaysia,” says Akkbar.

He adds that the main strategy is to offer affordable products that give buyers value for money in order to be competitive in the Malaysian market.

“We achieved this by increasing the localisation of our parts and the result is the current City and Jazz, which both carry competitive prices with added features.”

The other approach was a re-look into its operations and as a result, Honda Malaysia has expanded its production with the new No.2 Line at its Pagoh plant in Malacca.

This has increased its production capacity from 50,000 units to 100,000 units a year.

In the same period, Honda Malaysia also looked into increasing efficiency in its factory and expanded its pre-delivery inspection process and parts warehousing.

“Finally, to accommodate the high volume of sales, we have also expanded our dealer network from 62 dealers in 2012 to 78 dealers this year. This is to ensure that our customers are more satisfied. We plan to have a dealer in all major towns in Malaysia,” explains Akkbar.

Currently, its best selling model is the City, which has sold 32,465 units from January to November this year. Honda has also introduced variants that cater to all budgets.

The Jazz for example, has three variants and prices start at RM72,800 and go up to RM87,800. The City has four variants and its prices start at RM75,800 with the highest variant priced at RM90,800.

Such a wide range of prices offer options to the consumers, which translate to more offerings and higher sales.

Honda Malaysia has 11 models in its list and this includes three hybrid models - the Civic Hybrid (RM185,500), CR-Z (RM183,000) and the Jazz Hybrid (RM89,912). The latter is assembled locally and enjoys the hybrid benefits introduced by the government.

Related post:

Is Proton seen headed in the right direction? 

Is Proton seen headed in the right direction?

Proton has been trailling fellow national carmaker Perodua since 2006 in terms of sales

THE recent announcement by automotive conglomerate DRB-Hicom Bhd that it plans to raise RM2bil in funds, mostly to help turn around wholly-owned carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd, is seen as a move in the right direction by many.

One industry observer points out that Proton needs to develop new technology to help keep it competitive.

“For any automotive company to survive and be competitive, it needs to develop new technology on a continuous and consistent basis.

“Unfortunately, this has been a challenge for Proton.”

Proton’s lack of economies of scale is a major issue for the car company, he says.

“The pricing of its vehicles can be more competitive. However, this is not the case as the company can’t bring down the unit price of its vehicles as its development costs are spread across a smaller number of units, unlike many of its foreign competitors.”

Proton has been trailing fellow national carmaker Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) since 2006 in terms of sales.

While Proton has been struggling over the years sorting out issues such as its sales performance, quality issues and after sales woes, among others, Perodua meanwhile has been steadily thriving.

In 2005, Perodua, which was still behind Proton in terms of sales, launched its iconic Myvi compact car, a model that changed the automotive landscape and turned the tides in favour of Perodua.

The Perodua Myvi has been the best-selling car in Malaysia for eight consecutive years from 2006 and 2013. The model accounts for about 50% of Perodua’s annual sales.

According to data by the Malaysian Automotive Association, Proton sold a total of 138,753 vehicles in 2013 compared with 196,071 vehicles sold by Perodua in the same year.

Recently, Proton launched the highly anticipated Iriz, which, to many, is considered a game-changer for the company and is regarded as “the car” to protect its market share and directly take on the Myvi.

An automotive analyst points out that added funds are necessary for Proton to come up with not only new technology, but new competitive models as well.

“DRB-Hicom reportedly spent RM500mil to develop the Iriz and the car has been very well received by the public. Therefore, Proton needs more such models to boost sales and grow its marketshare, which is what justifies the need for added funds,” he says.

Earlier this month, DRB-Hicom announced that it was launching a perpetual sukuk programme to raise funds of up to RM2bil, which Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) expects will be channelled to Proton.

The rating firm has assigned a preliminary rating of AIS to the group’s proposed perpetual Sukuk Musharakah programme of up to RM2bil. It also affirmed its AA-IS rating on DRB-Hicom’s existing Islamic medium term notes (IMTN) programme of up to RM1.8bil.

Both ratings carry a stable outlook. The two-notch rating differential between the perpetual sukuk and IMTN is in line with MARC’s notching principles on hybrid securities.

The proposed perpetual sukuk is non-callable within five years of issuance and has profit distributions that are cumulative and deferrable on an unlimited timeline.

MARC says the affirmed rating on the IMTN incorporated DRB-Hicom group’s strong market position in the domestic automotive industry, underpinned by a diverse range of car marques and a long operational track record.

It adds that the rating was also supported by a moderately diversified revenue stream from other businesses that included concessions, logistics and property development.

However, MARC has pointed out the ratings are constrained by the group’s large borrowings and its continued reliance on external funding to accommodate expansion and acquisition plans.

An analyst says the sukuk is unlikely to adversely impact DRB-Hicom’s credit profile.

“DRB-Hicom’s debts jumped in 2012 when it acquired Proton.

“Nevertheless, we believe that the sukuk is not designed to place pressure on their earnings.”

MARC, meanwhile, says that Proton’s short term liquidity concerns had eased somewhat following the completion of subsidiary Lotus Group International Ltd’s (Lotus) £207.30mil (RM1.1bil) debt restructuring into a longer tenured debt.

RHB Research Institute director and head of research Alexander Chia says Proton pays a high amount of finance cost per year to pay-off the borrowings it took to acquire Proton in 2012. “DRB-Hicom borrowed RM3bil to buy Proton and is currently paying over RM300mil in finance costs annually, which is a huge chunk of group profits. Proton’s marginal contribution to earnings is not helping matters.

“DRB-Hicom’s balance sheet is over-leveraged and Proton is also not contributing to help boost their earnings,” he says.

According to DRB-Hicom’s financial report for the financial year ended March 31, 2014, its finance cost stood at RM292.38mil.

Alternatively, another analyst says it is vital for Proton to collaborate with a globally-established original equipment manufacturer to enhance its competitiveness.

“A strategic partner can help fasttrack Proton’s presence in the global automotive arena. It also needs to be able to expand its export market.

He notes that tying up with a partner can also help Proton to reduce its costs.

It was reported recently that Proton and Honda Motor Co Ltd are currently engaged in a series of meetings to explore the possibility of collaborating in the field of technology enhancement, new product lines and sharing of platform and facilities.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed has commented that this venture is expected to help Proton save millions in investment and development time for a new model.

According to MARC, Proton’s debt level rose by 24.1% year-on-year to RM1.79bil, which led to an increase in the car manufacturer’s debt-to-equity (DE) ratio to 0.58 times for financial year ended March 31, 2014 (FY14) (FY13: 0.38 times).

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM The Star/Asia News Network

Related:

All Models for Proton, New Car Reviews, Photos, Prices ...

Proton Iriz Infohub - Paul Tan's Automotive News

Proton Price Promotion Malaysia

protonprice.com/

Proton Price.com monthly review for the Proton promotion and rebates for Proton ... Proton Exora, Proton Satria Neo R3, Proton Saga FLX and the new Saga SV .

Saga - Proton Price Promotion Malaysia

protonprice.com/saga/

The car is part of the Saga FLX model range, but will simply be known as the Saga ... All the on the road prices are based on Peninsula Malaysia only and are ...