Are Perodua seriously considering an Italian tech partner for their first EV?
Earlier this month, photos of Perodua President and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad was seen in Italy with Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz. The photos were purportedly taken during a meeting about Perodua’s upcoming EV project. The whole idea is that Perodua is to create an affordable EV with production starting by the end of 2025, just in time for the current incentives on EV sales to expire.
Currently, there are three markets where EVs manufacturers are thriving and EV sales seem to show some promise – China, the US and Europe. Each country has their brands and their way of doing things, but even in the EU it’s really the German and French who are leading the EV charge – and even this subset of the EU brands are behind the Chinese and Americans in terms of numbers.
So why exactly did Perodua choose to go into collaboration with the Italians for their first electric vehicle? Could it be that Perodua are planning to badge-engineer a version of the Fiat 500 electric for us?
Honestly it seems unlikely. The Italians are far from the authority on dependable budget vehicles outside of their home turf, let alone budget electric vehicles. In fact, the share of electric AND plug-in hybrid vehicles in Italy was just 8.6% in 2022 with experts citing poor charging infrastructure and poor incentives being major reasons for poor EV uptake in the country.
So why an Italian brand and not a Chinese brand?
Here’s my theory. Firstly, for Perodua an Italian suitor could be the boost to branding they could use, particularly if the input comes in the form of design and material choices. Perodua are still in the midst of the Daihatsu safety scandal and could use a break from the association to the Japanese brand. Sure, they’ll always be technical partners but from a marketing standpoint it would be a good PR move to have something else to talk about.
Second, there are a number of Italian design and consulting firms that could lay the foundation for an EV. We’ve seen over the years companies like Italdesign creating EV concepts that were ready to be repackaged for a manufacturing partner. Perhaps there’s already something in the chamber that can be tweaked a little with Perodua’s input and put to production in a short time?
Third, there are probably Italian companies that are looking for partners just like Perodua to create such products. There’s a growing need for the West to divest interest in China and a Malaysian company with proven Japanese technology transfer could be attractive to the right partner. Likewise, Daihatsu may also be looking for an EV tech partner from outside of China or Japan.
Fourth, it could be that this was just one of many meetings taken for the project and the Italian firm is only one part or one possible bidder for Perodua’s first EV project. We’ll have to wait and see how it all pans out.
