Perodua and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have signed a five-year agreement to run a new xEV engineering programme, with industry involvement built in from the start.
Announced in Johor Baru today, the Perodua-UTM xEV Engineering Programme will take in 10 to 15 top students each year from UTM’s Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Honours course.
The selected students will join the programme for one and a half years, beginning in the second semester of their third year.
It is set up in a fairly hands-on way. Students will spend 10 weeks in industrial training at Perodua, work towards IMI Level 3 certification, and complete final-year projects under joint supervision from university staff and Perodua engineers.
That should bring the course closer to real industry work instead of keeping it mostly in the classroom.
UTM vice-chancellor Prof Ts Dr Mohd Shafry Abdul Rahim said the tie-up would help narrow the gap between academic training and industry needs.
He said the collaboration includes a dedicated Perodua-UTM xEV Engineering Laboratory, BEV engineering elective subjects, and access to simulation tools such as Hardware in the Loop systems.
Perodua president and chief executive officer Datuk Sri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said the effort is a long-term investment in developing engineers for the xEV era.
Perodua is also contributing technical equipment and two QV-E vehicles for practical learning in the lab.
The programme gives Perodua a more direct hand in training future EV engineers, while UTM students get earlier exposure to the skills employers are already looking for.
As for QV-E sales, it looks weak, bookings are modest, and Perodua seems to be treating this as a phased rollout rather than a high-volume hit from day one.
