Modularity may allow for applications beyond what the Perodua QV-E is right now, but one thing is for sure – there won’t be an internal combustion engine (ICE) model based on it. This was revealed by Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad in an interview with Careta‘s Hezeri Samsuri, in which a wide range of topics related to the automaker were discussed.
One of the questions was about the possibility of the platform being used to spawn an ICE model, not surprising given that the platform, which was developed in partnership with Magna Steyr, has been touted as being suited not just for EVs but also range extenders and hybrids.
However, Zainal said that while the platform will spin off models, there would not be a pure ICE one, as the automaker’s collaboration with Daihatsu precludes any development of a self-developed pure combustion-engined model. “It’s a bit difficult because our agreement with our partner (Daihatsu) means that for ICE, we will continue along the lines of our traditional partnership, that’s the agreement,” he said.
He did however hint of a possibility of a range extender model as the platform shapes up down the line, beyond the QV-E. “The platform as well as more than 20% of the tooling will be carried over to future models, because they are common internal parts mostly, and since it is a multiple platform, we are studying the possibility of doing an REEV,” he said.
More importantly, Perodua’s move into electrification looks set to expand its involvement with Daihatsu beyond the conventional scope. “We’ve done the EV ourselves. But we’ve gotten enquiries from them to join us in our EV development,” he said, adding that there has also been an offer from Toyota to build EV cars for them.
Zainal said that going the journey alone hasn’t been easy, especially from a cost perspective, but it is one that needed to be done. “If you ask me, the learning process is really expensive, and it’s hard for us to recover 100% of the investment, unlike how we do it with ICE cars, but I feel proud of our people that we can develop a car and that it has opened their eyes (Daihatsu and Toyota), and they’re now talking about collaboration,” he said.
The post Perodua QV-E – no ICE version, but REEV possible; Daihatsu has enquired to join EV development appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
