Malaysia’s first EV costs under $20,000, but you don’t own the battery

It’s no secret that the biggest issue for most people who want to buy electric cars is the price tag. New technology is expensive, and batteries cost a lot of money to make. This keeps the price of EVs high compared to gas cars. However, a car company in Malaysia thinks it has found a way to fix this problem. Perodua has revealed the QV-E, the first electric vehicle made by a Malaysian brand. The starting price looks amazing on paper, but buyers need to read the fine print before they sign the papers.

The Perodua QV-E is a subcompact crossover with a starting price of about $19,400. In local currency, that is 80,000 ringgit. This price point makes it very competitive. It costs about the same as a normal gas car of the same size. But there is a reason the price is so low. The price does not include the most expensive part of the car, and the buyer does not own the battery. Instead, the owner must sign a lease that lasts for nine years.

This lease requires a monthly payment just for the battery pack. The fee is about $67, or 275 ringgit, every single month. This might sound annoying to some people, but the math shows it is a fair deal. Over the course of the nine-year contract, the owner will pay an extra $7,236 for the battery use. Other companies like Nio and VinFast have similar subscription models to lower the upfront cost of electric cars. Even Renault tried this in Europe with their Zoe model years ago.

The Perodua QV-E has decent numbers for a daily driver. It uses a single electric motor mounted in the front that delivers 201 horsepower (150 kW). It also has 210 lb-ft of torque. This is enough power to push the car from zero to 62 mph in 7.5 seconds. It is not a sports car, but it is plenty fast for highway merging and city traffic.

The battery that you have to rent is a 52.5 kWh lithium iron phosphate pack supplied by CATL. Perodua says this gives the car a range of 277 miles, but it is important to know that this number comes from the NEDC testing cycle, known for being very optimistic. On the stricter EPA cycle, this battery would likely get around 203 miles of range.

The QV-E also has a handy feature called vehicle-to-load, or V2L, allowing the car to act like a giant power bank. You can plug in a laptop, power tools, or camping gear directly into the car. This is a great feature for people who like the outdoors or need backup power during an outage.

Perodua spent nearly $200 million on research and development of the QV-E, and worked with Magna Steyr to engineer the vehicle. The design looks modern with a horizontal light strip across the front and the back. Production will start soon, but the company plans to build only about 500 units per month at first. By the third quarter of 2026, they hope to ramp up production to 3,000 cars per month.

This slow rollout ensures they can fix any quality issues before thousands of cars hit the road - clearly, they have been watching companies like VinFast kicking off production and then struggling to keep up with problems. The first domestic EV is a big step for the Malaysian auto industry, and the price seems right - as long as buyers are okay with renting their fuel tank for the next decade.

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