Tesla Malaysia begins massive hiring campaign this Saturday.
Many by now are aware that Tesla are about to set-up official sales and aftersales operations in Malaysia. This came when Tesla Sdn Bhd was found registered on SSM with the sole shareholder being Tesla International B.V. Well, if you’re interested in joining the team at Tesla Sdn Bhd, this weekend might be your time to shine.
The company is having a walk-in recruitment weekend for certain positions on the 17th of June 2023 at Cyberjaya between 12pm and 4pm. The positions available are:
- Sales Advisor/Inside Sales Advisor
- Enterprise Sales Advisor
- Delivery Advisor
- Customer Support Specialist
- Service Advisor
Those interested should head down to Level 4, Cyberview Block 3750, Persiaran Apec, Cyber 8, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor. It’s unclear at this point what business model Tesla will follow in Malaysia. Will there be a nationwide showroom and service centre roll-out or will they go for sales outlets in malls with larger service hubs for each region?
How Will Tesla Fare In Malaysia?
It’s impossible to make predictions, but our wild guess is that they be more than moderately successful at launch. The premium brands in Malaysia all have gone on a full electric vehicle offensive with an extremely diverse and well represented range of emissions-free cars now available free of excise duties and import taxes. What’s more, BYD and GWM are both in Malaysia with sub-RM200,000 electric offerings of their own which are doing rather well despite being relatively unknown brands in the market.
Tesla will likely enter the market with the Model 3 and Model Y. However, the Model S and Model X will not be coming to Malaysia as the company has decided to halt production of the right-hand drive variants for both of these larger premium EVs. What that means is that larger premium electric vehicles like the BMW iX, iX3, Mercedes-Benz EQE, EQS, and Porsche Taycan will probably still be doing alright once Tesla Malaysia gets up and running.
The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are both compact premium vehicles that have been given major price cuts in the US and China. Currently, the Model Y starts at around 311K yuan in China while the Model 3 goes for about US$47K. This translates to about RM200,000 to RM215,000 for the base models in each country. However, it should be noted that Tesla does the bulk of their sales in those markets and may benefit from other incentives from those states that help lower prices.
We should not expect either the Model 3 or Model Y to arrive at the low RM200,000s. It would be more realistic to see them arrive between RM250,000-RM350,000 unless Tesla Malaysia is aiming for an extremely aggressive push into our market.
