BAIC Cars & EV (Electric Vehicles) arrives in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: If your car does any kind of mileage, its wheels will eventually need adjustment. A sure sign to get your wheels fixed is when the car gradually drifts to one side, either the left or the right, when you’re cruising on a straight and level road.

The USA went through a drastic re-alignment last week when Donald Trump was elected President against most major opinion polls. The establishment ignored the alternative media. Trump’s campaign strategist, a good looking female blond mother of four, was duly recognized when he gave her a kiss on the cheek at 3 AM in the morning when he made his victory speech as President Elect of the US (PEOTUS).

Money markets worldwide dived and gold reached new highs. The ringgit went to a 12-year low against the US dollar.

One of the early victims of the Trump victory is likely to be the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with 12 countries. The PEOTUS is taking the populist position of “Making America Great” and “bringing back jobs back to the USA”.

This goes against the economic convention that globalization and specialization create a synergy that is superior to isolationism. Brazil’s and India’s self-dependence economic model in the 70’s was proof enough.

Unfortunately, the US is such a huge powerhouse of science and technology that Trump’s disengagement, to a degree, would affect the world.

While Malaysia has a large agricultural trade with the US, the effects will be smaller in the automotive sector where American business interest is small compared with Japan’s.

Outgoing president Barack Obama had talked about a pivot to Asia and Southeast Asia.

Ford and GM’s proposed long term plans to re-invest in the region including Malaysia might now move further away into the horizon.

Fortunately for Malaysia, there has also been a pivot towards another economic powerhouse, China, both on the government side as well as business-to-business.

One of the most interesting developments on the business-to-business front was unveiled on Thursday at Malaysia Autoshow, the largest annual autoshow in the country.

The Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, officially launched the BAIC EV200, a full electric car that will be assembled in Malaysia for the domestic market initially.

More than the launching of the car, the partnership between the Beijing Automotive Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and the Malaysian company, Amber Dual, is a significant leg-up for Malaysia and its aspiration to be a regional hub for hybrid and electric vehicles.

The partnership between a major China car-maker and a Malaysian company for the assembly of an electric car with a view towards regional sales and distribution to regional right-hand drive markets is a major coup for the Malaysian automotive industry.

In fact, the China car industry has been trying to gain a foothold in the Asean region and it has established some partnerships in Thailand (MG and Roewe) and Malaysia (Great Wall Motor and GO Auto).

There have also been some strategic retreats. The Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC) recently packed up its office in Malaysia when it decided not to pursue a partnership with Proton because the market wasn’t attractive say sources familiar with SAIC’s management.

We gained some insights into the automotive industry partnership of the year, the BAIC Amber Dual joint venture to assemble and distribute BAIC vehicles including the electric EV200, when we interviewed Amber Dual’s founder and managing director, Shahbudin bin Md Saman.

"I’ve been in the automotive component industry for about 20 years and our company provides software systems and services for car and aircraft makers.

"The involvement with China car companies started when I was involved with Great Wall Motor and Go Auto Manufacturing as a shareholder,” said Shahbudin.

GO Auto assembles Great Wall Motor’s vehicles including the Haval M4 for domestic and regional sales.

"During my venture with GO Auto, I travelled to Beijing one of my bimonthly trips to Beijing during this time with GO Auto Manufacturing, I saw BAIC’s cars including its EV.

"The van was BAIC’s first right-hand drive vehicle and we started negotiating with BAIC in early 2015 to assemble and distribute this vehicle. This van was the beginning of how this trust was built," said Shahbudin, 53.

"We assembled and localized this commercial vehicle two years ago and the 16-seater van is available in diesel and petrol engines."

"The D20 will be our key product and will be available by early 2017 from our Gurun contract assembly plant."

"Our next product will be the X25 SUV and the EV200 will be ready for launch in 3Q 2017," he said.

Now, so far this is salesman talk and we’ll know it when we see it. But even if the BAIC Amber Dual cars is a year late, Malaysia will be the first Asean nation to have a locally assembled Electric Vehicle.

With or without Trump, GM would not have invested in a Bolt electric car assembly line in Thailand or Malaysia in the next five or 10 years. Fortunately, Asean has a new economic powerhouse to turn to for vehicle technology to leapfrog the old companies and the First World.

Specifications of the BAIC 200 EV

1. Range 200-240 km
2. Permanent magnet motor, 30/53 kW power, 102/180 Nm torque
3. SK Ternary Lithium battery good for 2,000 charging cycles and retaining more than 90 per cent charge after 2,000 charging cycles.
4. 8" touch screen, Bluetooth and pairing with smartphone
5. Mobile phone wireless charging