Proton’s affordable EV, the eMas 5, was officially launched yesterday. Perodua when againsome wonder. Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad told us on the sidelines of the Japan Mobility Show 2025 in Tokyo that the EV is now in its final stages and trial production has already begun at the company’s base in Rawang. As such, Malaysia’s first homegrown electric car is on track for a 2025 launch as promised.
Will it be a similar rival to the Proton eMas 5? Malaysia’s first homegrown electric car – which could be called QV-E – is different in many ways. Firstly, it is designed and developed in-house by Perodua (the eMas 5 is a rebadged Geely Xingyuan and the first batch is CBU imported from China), and Zainal says P2 owns the (IP) intellectual property for the EV’s design and platform.
Yes, platform too – Perodua’s first EV will use CATL-supplied LFP batteries, but that’s the extent of the Chinese battery giant’s involvement.
The product itself will be of a different segment, both in terms of size, EV specs and sophistication. The WLTP range of the eMas 5 is 225 km for the Prime and a more useful 325 km for the Premium – we can expect a WLTP range of around 450 km for the Perodua QV-E (in the real world a range of 400 to 410 km was previously mentioned), which is a significant step forward – in fact, 450 km even beats the eMas 7, which has a maximum of 410 km WLTP gets.
Beyond the range, Perodua’s performance targets for its EV – 0-100 km/h between six and seven seconds and a top speed of around 160 km/h – are also well ahead of the eMas 5, which comes with 0-50 km/h figures instead of the usual 100 km/h benchmark.
The difference between the two products can be clearly seen in the design of the P2 EV, which was seen in close detail (we were shown images of the production car in Tokyo, but headshots were not allowed) in the latest eMO concept, also known as Aspirations, which was unveiled in May.
Looking a bit like the Toyota C-HR+ EV that surfaced in March, the P2’s electric crossover design is contemporary and should have more universal appeal than the cute looks and organic shapes of the eMas 5, which was designed in accordance with the preferences of the Chinese market – rightly so, as the Xingyuan has become a bestseller in its home market.
As far as price is concerned, the Perodua QV-E will not undercut the eMas 5 (RM57k to RM70k with early bird discounts) – expect it to be around RM80k. One bold and new feature, however, is the ‘guaranteed future value’ plan Zainal talked about earlier: GFV, used by premium brands like Mercedes-Benz, will protect buyers from the sharp depreciation of electric cars. P2’s battery leasing program is also not offered by any other EV vendor in Malaysia.
The point of having a homegrown EV is also to build a local EV ecosystem, and Perodua is targeting around 50% local content for its EV by mid-2026, which is an admirable goal. This will most likely not include key components such as the battery and electric motor – which will come from China – but there are plans to localize these as well. However, sufficient volume is required before this makes business sense.
Read all about Perodua’s first EV here and find out more about the recently launched P-Circle app that owners will use. Now just around the corner!
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