ALERT: The Perodua EV will be a little late in coming. Its launch has been delayed to Dec 1.
As 2025 heads into its final weeks, three new electric models from three different marques are lining up to grab the limelight, albeit to very different degrees.
Perodua will fire the starting gun in late November with its first EV, followed in December by the Wuling Bingo EV and Forthing’s Friday SUV from China.
Perodua’s first electric model is the headline act. It wears a national badge, plugs directly into buyers’ sense of pride and already has political backing, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim jokingly saying he is ready to be the car’s “chief marketing officer” when it goes abroad.
Based on the earlier eMO-II concept, the car called QV-E is due to be unveiled in late November as part of a push to make cleaner motoring more accessible.
The show car has moved on from its hatchback roots into a compact SUV-crossover, with a taller stance, 18-inch wheels and a fastback-style roof.
Underneath, it is expected to use an LFP battery of about 52.5 kWh from CATL, targeting roughly 400 to 410km on a charge, powered by a single electric motor, with outputs expected to be comfortably above current entry-level rivals.
Perodua has talked up affordability, but it cannot duck under Proton’s e.MAS 5, which now holds the “most affordable EV” title at RM56,800 and is officially billed as Malaysia’s cheapest EV.
If Perodua is offering a familiar badge for first-time EV owners, the TQ Wuling Bingo EV from Tan Chong’s TQ Wuling venture is the cute city option.
Due to launch in December as a locally assembled model, the five-door hatch will be sold here in Pro and Max variants with 31.9 kWh and 37.9 kWh LFP batteries, claiming 333 kilometres and 410 kilometres of CLTC range. Bookings are now open online at TQ Wuling’s website, which also has an incomplete feature list of the car to whet the appetite.
Both support 50 kW DC fast charging from 30% to 80% in under 35 minutes, and Wuling is aiming to keep prices below RM100,000.
The Bingo’s compact footprint, upright cabin and pastel colour choices are aimed at urban drivers and younger buyers, with six airbags providing a basic safety net for new EV adopters.
The Bingo, or Binguo in China, is made by Liuzhou-based SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), a joint venture between the three auto groups.
Next year could see Wuling rolling out additional models such as the Starlight (Xingguang) 730 MPV, the Starlight 560 SUV and the Yangguang electric cargo van.
TQ Wuling officials recently told a Malaysian delegation to SGMW in Liuzhou that they were exploring the potential of the models for Malaysia.
Rounding out the trio is Forthing, a Dongfeng sub-brand making its Malaysian debut with the Friday C-SUV.
Shown at the Nov 12–14 GATE 2025 expo in Kuala Lumpur, the Friday will be offered as both a full battery EV and a range-extended EV, with indicative pricing from about RM140,000 for the EV and RM150,000 for the REEV.
The pure electric version is targeting around 400km of WLTP range, while the REEV combines a smaller battery with a petrol generator for long-distance use.
Forthing is planning semi-knocked down assembly for the Friday and a V9 MPV (a plug-in hybrid) to follow in 2026 – and it is no coincidence that both the Wuling and Forthing models come out of Liuzhou in China, a city rapidly emerging as one of the region’s key EV manufacturing hubs.
