On the surface, it’s business as usual for Malaysia’s motor industry. After all, Perodua is already taking online bookings for its recently launched SUV. But what’s really going on is that Malaysia is going to miss out on the new wave of electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, while regional competitors such as Indonesia roll out new investor-friendly policies that include EVs.
Car buyers will continue to be saddled with high car taxes and will receive the latest car technologies only after Thailand and Indonesia. With Malaysia acceding to the world’s largest free trade agreement that is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in November last year, it has also accepted competition from China, Japan and South Korea.
For instance, Honda’s latest big thing is its “Traffic Jam Pilot” technology which will be launched with its flagship Honda Legend by the end of March in Tokyo.It will be the first car in the world able to operate nationwide using “Level 3” autonomous driving technology. “Level 0” means no driver assistance while “Level 4” means total automation of the driving of a car.
This was analysed by Eri Sugiura, reporting in Nikkei Asia, who stated, “To boil it down, it takes more than just advanced technology to bring self-driving vehicles into everyday use.”