Perodua positioned to launch Malaysia’s top-selling EV

For decades, Malaysia’s automotive ambitions were treated as a strategic extension of its industrial upgrade pathway—moving from resource extraction toward high-value manufacturing. But the acceleration of China’s global EV dominance, the erosion of ASEAN’s local content logic, and the reclassification of excise duties all point to a deeper tension: Malaysia’s automotive industrial policy is no longer protected by regional symmetry or domestic affordability. And the institutions steering this transition may not yet be structurally equipped for what comes next.

The formation of a “council of automotive eminent persons” suggests high-level recognition of this inflection. But its advisory-only status—and the absence of the finance minister as co-chair—raises questions about policy coherence. What matters now is not just the path chosen but whether the council’s conclusions will have enough fiscal legitimacy to survive Treasury filters. Without fiscal co-ownership, any recommendation on tax or investment incentives risks being symbolic.

The introduction of a new excise duty based on open market value marks a departure from Malaysia’s historical policy posture. Originally designed to promote local assembly and support national brands, the tax regime had been relatively protectionist but predictable. That’s no longer the case. From January 2025, locally assembled cars—including entry-level Perodua models—will carry new price burdens, from RM500 at the low end to as much as RM30,000 for premium nameplates.

This isn’t a marginal adjustment. It’s a realignment of industrial priorities—one that recasts the automotive sector less as a productivity driver and more as a revenue source. The result could be structurally regressive: premium marques may simply abandon local assembly and reroute production to Thailand, where incentives and volumes better justify investment. Once reversed, such moves are rarely recaptured.

This tax shift may appear modest in isolation. But it reflects a deeper fiscal posture that increasingly treats industrial sectors as extractive rather than developmental. It signals fragility in tax base diversification and reliance on indirect levies, even as the broader economy seeks to project green transition leadership.

The replacement of opaque, bespoke incentives with a “menu-driven” approach is a step toward institutional transparency. But it’s not clear that it translates into competitiveness. Several global OEMs have noted that Malaysia’s revised offerings are still less favorable than Thailand’s or Indonesia’s—particularly for EV-scale manufacturers seeking ecosystem depth, not just tariff breaks.

Here, the council must contend with a policy misalignment: Malaysia wants to attract high-value auto investment but is simultaneously applying a tax structure that undercuts local assembly economics. Without alignment between fiscal tools, regulatory architecture, and industrial incentives, the country risks becoming a secondary option—viable only for spillover investment from firms already embedded elsewhere in the region.

For major Chinese brands like BYD or GWM, whose Southeast Asia beachhead is already secured in Thailand, Malaysia’s proposition will need to extend beyond cost—it must offer differentiation in talent, compliance, or tech specialization. That window is narrowing.

One overlooked pathway is Malaysia’s latent comparative advantage in electronics and rare earth supply. While the vehicle assembly race may already be lost to higher-volume neighbors, Malaysia could anchor itself as a systems and component hub—particularly for right-hand-drive ADAS conversion and auto-grade semiconductor development.

Converting advanced driver assistance software from left-hand to right-hand drive is far from trivial. It requires not just physical inversion but full revalidation of safety parameters, visual recognition zones, and actuator synchronization. By positioning itself as a regional R&D and integration node—leveraging its E&E talent base—Malaysia can capture value upstream of final assembly.

Similarly, consolidating rare earth processing and magnet manufacturing would allow the country to embed itself into the electric drivetrain value chain. With global supply chain resilience a rising geopolitical priority, anchoring such capabilities domestically would signal more than just industrial foresight—it would reflect sovereign alignment with long-term strategic supply needs.

While the economic logic for such repositioning is sound, institutional execution remains the weak link. Malaysia’s industrial evolution has historically been hampered by siloed governance, short-cycle budget planning, and fragmented agency mandates. The current council’s recommendations will face the same limitations unless its work is structurally linked to budgetary and tax authority.

This is where co-chairing by the finance minister is more than symbolic—it determines whether industrial transformation scenarios are fiscally scaffolded or simply aspirational. Without integrated oversight, any proposed incentive overhaul, tech R&D pipeline, or rare earths industrialization roadmap will stall at the Treasury gate.

The lesson is not new: cross-ministerial misalignment has eroded credibility across several national transformation blueprints in the past. If the goal is to outcompete Thailand or anticipate geopolitical supply shifts, then budget ownership must precede bureaucratic ambition.

In this evolving landscape, Perodua may hold the best chance of national relevance. Unlike Proton, whose ownership and strategic direction are largely foreign-determined, Perodua maintains operational alignment with Malaysia’s development goals. Its EV prototype—enabled by Daihatsu’s consent to deviate from legacy tech sharing—represents not just a vehicle launch but an institutional test.

If Perodua can scale this EV locally, using off-the-shelf components and domestic R&D, it validates a new model of national car development: low-friction partnerships with high local integration. The question is whether Malaysia can protect that model from being drowned by excise taxes or sidestepped by a flood of cheap CBU imports.

If executed well, Perodua’s EV could anchor a new trade narrative—not one of volume parity with Thailand, but of niche dominance in affordable EVs for ASEAN’s urban middle class.

Malaysia’s automotive industrial policy is at a crossroads—not because it lacks ideas, but because its institutional structure may be insufficiently integrated to support them. The tax shift reflects fiscal stress more than industrial logic. The investment menu signals reform, but without teeth. And the strategy rests on Perodua and parts-makers succeeding where policy alignment has yet to materialize.

This is not yet industrial decline. But without structural realignment, it may become path dependence. The market will adjust. Capital already has.