07/12/2025

theSunday Special XIV ON SUNDAY DEC 7, 2025

For the first time in a Perodua, the instrument cluster is entirely digital.

The steering wheel comes with over a dozen buttons but it does not feel overwhelming.

The Perodua QV:E costs RM80,000. That is the price of the car, but it does not include the price of the EV battery. For the battery, you must pay a further RM275 (no inclusive of 8% SST) for nine years. It does not matter if your hire purchase agreement with any financial institution is for three years, five or even seven years. You must pay RM275 for the battery. Despite paying for the battery, Perodua retains ownership of the battery. The car belongs to you at the end but not the bat tery. Just to make sure you do not do anything funny with the car, Perodua will be able to track the movement and whereabouts of the car. It does not track it in real time and does not care where you go. But it tracks the car because in case you miss your monthly pay ments on the battery, it will remotely dis able the car. In case you miss your payments to your bank on your hire purchase agreement and your bank repossesses the car, Perodua will repossess the battery and negotiate with the bank to buy back your car. But you will still have to settle your defaulted loan to the bank though. If you are worried about having to make payments to two separate institutions, the good things is you can pay the RM275 for the battery directly to your bank. But in case your hire purchase loan ends early, you then pay the RM275 directly to Perodua. With this model, you cannot use your QV:E for ride hailing services, sublet the car to anyone else, or use the car for commer cial purposes. THERE IS MORE THOUGH When it comes to selling the car, you must sell it back to Perodua because the battery remains the property of the com pany. You could sell the car to anyone else but it has to be without the battery. Good luck with that. SO, WHAT’S THE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS? With BaaS, Perodua mitigates the risk of the state of the health of the battery falling below 70%. If it does, Perodua will replace the battery for free and it takes just 30 min utes to replace the battery. And unlike other car makers that give you fix year warranty on the battery, Perodua gives you a lifetime warranty on the battery. It will even pay for the insur ance on the battery while you pay your regular insurance on the car.

non-existent for me. You also do not get rear air-conditioning vents, but you do get dual USB ports. This is Perodua’s first attempt at build ing its own vehicle from the ground up and for that, I will still give it credit, though I would not want to spend too much time at the back. CAR DESIGN It is entirely new for Perodua but its overall design has hints of inspiration from other car makers though. There is a little bit of Toyota and a little bit of Kia as well. But to be fair, it is difficult to be 100% original in this day and age and especially so when it comes to EV’s. It is undeniably a handsome car though and a big one too. The dimension sheets shared by Perodua pointed out that the QV:E is longer and taller than a BYD Dolphin. It is also wider and taller than the Proton e.MAS 5. It rolls on 18-inch wheels and generally looks good. HOW DOES IT DRIVE? A test drive around the Sepang International Circuit is not going to reveal much, especially one with a guide that kept saying, “please don’t crash the car”. But it was good enough of a drive to tell you that acceleration is fantastic though the car weighs in at a hefty 1,600kg. The brakes though feel like they could do with more bite but the cars available for the test were all pre-production cars. So, expect the customer cars to feel a lot better. Overall refinement was good as well with little wind noise at speeds above 100km/h. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM I write this a day after the official launch of the car, and social media has exploded. Sadly, with negative feedback. No one is complaining about the design of the car, the interior nor the performance of the car. But everyone has a problem with the one thing that Perodua is doing differ ently, and that is the Battery as a Service (Baas) programme. To make it clear, this is a noble service from Perodua. According to their research, the company found that EV buyers have three concerns – higher on the road price of cars, low resale value, EV battery replace ment cost. So, to mitigate these concerns, Perodua came up with BaaS. But somehow, the nobility of it all got lost in communication. I will try to simplify this in the best way I can.

Infotainment system comes with wireless Carplay and Android Auto.

The rear space is surprisingly cramped.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER NINE YEARS?

The concerns over the used value as well as the replacement cost of the battery are valid. But I don’t feel good about my move ments being tracked by Perodua and I really don’t want to be tied to a payment for so long. But in case you feel like this is not for you, Perodua also made it clear that the QV:E is not for everyone. It is not chasing volume in the hundreds of thousands like it is doing with the Myvi and Axia. During the media presentation, Perodua said that it is positioning the QV:E for M40 and T20 buyers. So Perodua has surely nailed the car, but BaaS can be refined. The idea is surely decent but perhaps ahead of its time. SPECIFICATIONS Motor: Permanent Magnet Synchronise Motor Drive: Front wheel drive Power: 150kW & 285Nm Range: 445km (WLTP) We like: Good looks, made Malaysians proud We don’t like: BaaS programme seems complicated

You no longer have to pay for the battery but should the state of health of the battery fall below 70%, you will have to replace the battery and restart your payments once again. But if you sell your car before nine years, the next owner will have to sign an agree ment with Perodua to restart his/her pay ment on the battery. WHY IS PERODUA DOING THIS? To mitigate the three concerns men tioned earlier but also to mitigate the risk of improper battery disposal. With Perodua maintaining ownership of the battery, it can then decide on how to properly dispose the battery without harm ing the environment. CONCLUSION The Perodua QV:E is undoubtedly a fan tastic first try by Perodua. Very few car makers around the world have nailed it from the get go but Perodua has. The only problem? BaaS. I personally think that Perodua has got the mechanism right but needs to tweak it.