Launched: Perodua QV-E – Malaysia’s First Homegrown EV, 445 km NEDC, RM80K*

Perodua’s first electric vehicle, the Perodua QV-E, has been officially launched today, priced at RM80,000*.

After a series of concepts and teasers, Perodua has finally launched its first-ever all-electric production model, the Perodua QV-E. Unveiled by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim earlier today, the new QV-E is billed as the first 100% Malaysian EV, priced at RM80,000 on-the-road sans insurance.

Included with said price are the standard warranty packages, including a 3-year or 100,000 km general vehicle warranty, a 6-year or 150,000 km body warranty, and an 8-year or 150,000 km drive unit warranty.

Before we get into the details, the RM80,000 OTR price listed above does not include the battery for the EV itself, which is leased to the owners via Perodua’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS). The monthly subscription for BaaS is RM275, which will be paid together with your monthly instalment, but we’ll talk more about this in a separate report.

Unlike P1's Geely-based EVs, the QV-E is being developed and built entirely by Perodua, without leaning on existing platforms or models by Daihatsu or Toyota.

Back to the EV itself, Perodua says the QV-E (pronounced as ‘Queue-Vee’) is "built with our hands," as the automaker partakes in its development without leaning on any existing platforms or donor models from its foreign partners Daihatsu and Toyota. To make things more impressive, Perodua had to start the EV development from scratch in Aug 2023, meaning that it only took them roughly two years to transform the QV-E from an idea into an actual product.

With P2 building its first EV from scratch, the Rawang-based marque now owns the intellectual property for the QV-E, including the new P01A platform that is developed with consultations from Austria’s Magna Styer—the same contract manufacturer that produces models like the Toyota GR Supra, Mercedes-Benz G-Class, and many more.

As for the EV components, Perodua did source some key components from renowned players, including the QV-E’s 52.5-kWh LFP battery pack supplied by CATL that can provide up to 445 km of NEDC range, or 370 km on the more lenient WLTP standards. Said battery pack also comes with IP68 water and IP69 dust protections, plus a liquid cooling system for better battery temperature management.

Charging-wise, the QV-E supports both AC 6.6 kW and DC 60 kW charging methods, with the latter seeing the pack charging from 30 to 80% in about 30 minutes, while the former takes eight hours to get from 0 to 100%.

Thanks to its 201 hp-rated e-motor, the QV-E is now the quickest production Perodua model to date!

Power is provided by a single FWD electric motor rated at 201 hp (150 kW) and 285 Nm, enabling the QV-E to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds (in Sport mode). While its acceleration performance is good enough to make the QV-E the quickest Perodua ever, its top speed is electronically governed at 165 km/h, which is easily achievable on Sepang’s main straight.

In terms of styling, the QV-E marks a departure in design from the eMO-II concept, as it now features a sporty coupe crossover bodystyle with a sportback-style roofline. Up front, it gets a grill-less front face with a full-width LED DRL bar, and the actual double projector LED headlights are located on the lower part of the front bumper.

The side part is where the QV-E arguably looks the sportiest, thanks to its coupe-like roofline with a rakish rear windscreen and thick rear pillars. Other key design features primed here include the 18-inch two-tone alloy wheels, flushed front door handles, hidden rear door handles a la the Honda HR-V, and sculpted wheel arches that give it a muscular stance.

At the rear, the QV-E continues the full-width LED taillight bar design trend, with the actual taillights featuring sequential turn signals. The rest of the tailgate design is quite simple and sporty, which includes a roof-mounted spoiler, a ducktail-style decklid, gloss black rear bumper accents, a centre-mounted QV-E badge, and a large Perodua emblem that doubles as the bootlid opener.

And not to forget, only two exterior colourways are offered for the QV-E, namely Caviar Grey and Ice Blue.

Dimension-wise, the QV-E spans 4,170 mm long, 1,800 mm wide, and 1,502 mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,680 mm, thus making it slightly longer but less wide and tall compared to the next affordable EV model, the Proton e.MAS 5.

On-board, the QV-E gets a pretty modern cabin setup, featuring a list of Perodua-first features. Some key highlights include a 10.25-inch central infotainment screen that supports wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a digital metre cluster, a digital rearview mirror to mitigate the rakish rear windscreen, a powered driver’s seat with semi-synthetic leather upholstery, a slew of physical buttons and controls on the central console stack, ambient lights, a wireless charging pad, a new two-spoke steering wheel with telescopic adjustment, six speakers, and many more.

To match its rivals, the QV-E can also be connected to Perodua’s new P-Circle mobile app, which grants users access to their EVs’ vital stats and allows them to perform some remote functions like unlocking, pre-conditioning, and many more.

Given its relatively compact dimension and sporty design, space and practicality might not be the QV-E’s strongest suit, as rear passengers get pretty limited legroom and headroom, plus no dedicated rear A/C vents, but at least you still get two USB charging ports here. The same goes for the boot space, featuring a 320-litre space that can be expanded with the rear seats folded.

The Perodua-first feature list continues on the safety front, where it gets several new functions like Child Presence Detection (CPD), which uses millimetre-wave sensors to detect movement and breathing of occupants at the rear even under fabric coverings or in pitch-black conditions.

Another new safety feature is the emergency SOS service, featuring a dedicated button above the rear mirror that is linked to both the MERS 999 and Perodua’s own Auto Assist rescue services. Last on the list is the tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), which makes the QV-E the first Perodua model to get this feature but also the first one that does not come with a spare tyre—which has been replaced by a tyre repair kit instead.

Some other safety features primed here include six airbags, parking assist, a 360-degree surround-view monitor, a built-in driving video recorder (DVR), ISOFIX child seat anchors, and a slew of ADAS functions like autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control (ACC), blind-spot detection (BSD), front collision warning (FCW), lane departure warning (LDW), lane-keep assist (LKA), rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), traffic jam assist (TJA), and many more.