Who Is Changan Auto’s Partner In Malaysia Right Now?
There are already 28 manufacturing and assembly plants in Malaysia for passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, motorcycles and scooters, as well as automotive parts and components.
Based on the investment data shared as at June 2021, MIDA has approved over 50 projects within the EEV ecosystem with an approved investment value amounted to RM8 billion. There is still much room for expansion in Malaysia’s electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem as the deployment of Electric Vehicles in Malaysia is still gaining traction.
MIDA expects that electric vehicles will steadily gain popularity and become more mainstream, particularly since there is a growing demand for green transportation in the ASEAN region.
Recently an investment worth RM4.3 billion from SK Nexilis of South Korea to manufacture electro-deposited copper foil for EV batteries has been approved. To be located at Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) in Sabah, SK Nexilis will build a copper foil manufacturing facility with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes.
The facility’s construction will tentatively begin in the first half of this year and commercial operations to kickstart by 2023.
Once in operations, the new facility will increase SK Nexilis’ copper foil production capacity by three times its current global capacity to about 100,000 tonnes.
Then there was news that Malaysian company, Fieldman EV Sdn. Bhd. had obtained exclusive rights to distribute a range of EVs in Malaysia and in Southeast Asia from Changan Automobile Corp.
This followed the announcement of Fieldman EV Sdn. Bhd. investing RM1 billion in Melaka to develop the country’s first EV assembly plant, set to be built on a 200-hectare site at the Elkay Lipat Kajang industrial area in Jasin. However, there is very little information to highlight the source of investment and the breakdown of the RM1 billion Investment in Melaka.
Changan Automobile Corp has not released any information on the venture which is also very strange as it mark a major milestone in their effort to enter the ASEAN market with their EV’s.
Changan Automobile Corp is not new to Malaysia. If you check online, you will find information on Changan’s local assembly program in Malaysia some 6 years ago on their corporate website.
On July 28th 2016 Changan held the rollout ceremony of M201 series Johor Bahru factory (100km North from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur). The CKD factory covers an area of 60,000 square meters, assembling up to 24,000 vehicles per year.
The senior leader of Berjaya China Motor (distributor of Changan Automotive Co. in Malaysia), leader and branch leaders of Changan International Corporation, sub-dealers, media and potential customers, a total of more than 100 people witnessed event together with Changan.
In fact, Changan has been in Malaysia since way back in 2009 and was only selling small commercial vehicles. The Malaysian partner is Berjaya Auto and the company is called Changan Berjaya Auto Sdn Bhd (Malaysia).
So, what happened with the Berjaya Auto partnership and assembly plant in Johor?
Finally, Malaysia continues to allow customized tax incentives and approval layers between seller and buyers and this is why we will never get a fair consumer market.
