Malaysian Manufactured Electric Vehicles, EPMB And SGI’s Alliance

EPMB Executive Chairman, Hamidon Abdullah - SGI CEO, John Lee

A memorandum of agreement (MoA) has been signed between Malaysian-based, EP Manufacturing Berhad (EPMB) and Californian-based, SAEAN Group Inc (SGI).

This joint venture is to develop and manufacture A-segment electric vehicles (EV) or compact sports utility vehicles (SUV) in Malaysia.

EP Manufacturing Berhad’s executive chairman, Hamidon Abdullah, remarked, "We are ready to become one of the first local EV car manufacturers in Malaysia as soon as this joint venture with SGI is realized. We aim to use more local resources to support the assembly of our local vehicles, and hopefully it will translate into cheaper entry and handling costs."

EP Manufacturing Berhad (EPMB)

SGI will lend technical and design expertise in EV production, while EPMB will provide EV resource support and market info, as well as focusing on mass production, supply and sales.

Notably, both companies have set an initial production capacity of 20,000-units per year for the Southeast Asian market.

Moving forward, this strategic alliance will also see the production of heavy-duty electric vehicles for the construction sector.

Malaysian Manufactured Electric Vehicles, Coming Soon

Hamidon concluded, “Given SGI's strong expertise in EV concept development and hardware technology, we are also confident that we can accelerate the commercial launch in the next few years. At the same time, EPMB will strive to achieve technical knowledge transfer for the benefit of Malaysians in the EV landscape.”

That said, SAEAN is a company established in 2013 that currently owns over 120 EV-related patents with its research and development centre located in South Korea.