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Perodua says that its eMO-II Concept, star of the ongoing Kuala Lumpur International Mobility Show (KLIMS) 2024, has all of the essence of the company’s first EV, which is due in the final quarter of 2025. The production car will have a variance of just a few percent – of course, the concept has been jazzed up for motor show purposes.
Photoshop whiz Theophilus Chin has done what he does best here, with his take on the production eMO-II. Named ‘Perodua Ace’ after some rumours, these renderings strip out the overly fancy bits from the KLIMS showcar, such as the camera wing mirrors and mega 19-inch aero wheels, replaced by regular items.
Also deleted by Theo are the concept car’s geometric decorative pattern that’s found on the front, rear, side skirts and roof. The empty face is then filled with slim LED headlamps (showcar only has a full-width light bar), a pattern on the nose (a bit like the Corolla Cross facelift perhaps, but without holes of course) and a regular-looking front chin/intake with some intake holes. Solid logo instead of an illuminated one, too.
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One of the concept’s most prominent lines is the ‘fin’ on the rear doors that somewhat emphasises the shapely wheel arches. That fin has a vent, which Theo has removed here. At the back, Theo has given the eMO-II realistic tail lamps while maintaining a horizontal light bar (embedded in the showcar’s glass), plus Perodua script in place of the usual logo. Both the light bar and script logo are current trends – will P2 adopt them?
All else has been maintained, which means that this ‘production eMO’ still looks interesting without being outlandish. Good attempt, we think. Have you seen the actual showcar? If not, you have three more days including today to visit KLIMS 2024 at MITEC.
Mind you, this thing isn’t done for fun. A publicly announced deadline by the government has forced P2 to come up with an EV from scratch. That’s because unlike Proton, P2’s foreign partner Daihatsu does not have a suitable donor car, and the R&D team in Rawang have been on an EV crash course. The process is still ongoing, but as we can see in this ‘Episode 2’, much progress has been made.
Expect an LFP battery from CATL, one of the world’s top EV battery makers, around 400 km of range and a price tag between RM50k to RM90k. Perodua believes that its EV will be the cheapest in the market, even after the current RM100k minimum price for CBU imported EVs is lifted.
Getting the bulk of Malaysians to switch from ICE to EV won’t be easy, and the most commonly cited negative point is the perceived lack of charging points. Of late, many have also caught on to the fact that EV resale values are rather poor – depreciation is definitely much steeper than what we’re used to with ICE cars. Perodua is aware of these concerns.
“We will make further announcements regarding the charging system as we plan to have an EV charging station every 40 to 50 km, whether it is a fixed permanent charger or a mobile charger, which is still under study. We are also looking at the resale value, as I mentioned before, we would like to maintain its second-hand value,” Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said at KLIMS. Full story here.
Based on what you’ve seen and heard so far, what do you think?
GALLERY: Perodua eMO-II Concept at KLIMS 2024
The post Production Perodua EV based on eMO-II rendered – due Q4 2025, 400 km range, CATL LFP batt, RM50k-90k appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
