At Perodua's Raya open house today, CEO Datuk Aminar Rashid continued to let slip tiny tidbits regarding the new, highly-awaited Perodua sedan. Unfortunately there was still no information forthcoming regarding the car itself, as the company's current focus is on what is expected to be a tough second half this year.
Aminar told the media present that the platform and engines for the new car have yet to be decided, so any technical information would have to wait. He did, however, confirm a couple of weeks ago that Perodua will be building new 1.3 and 1.5 litre mills from Toyota's NR engine family, which could be destined for the upcoming model.
Instead, Aminar focused on the development of the car, saying that the sedan could take as much as 36 to 48 months to develop, as there is a lot of local input in terms of R&D. "It's not going to come that soon, that's all that I will say," he said. "It will come, yes, and we think that it's going to be a good product."
As for other models, Aminar hinted that there will be some updates coming as early as this year, even as the company has only recently unveiled the Axia and facelifted Myvi in quick succession. "For us, [our product lifecycle] is five to seven years. So in between, how do you to excite the market?
"I can confirm, there's going to be something this year," he said. "What we can say is that from next month until the end of the year, there is going to be something exciting from us."
Additionally, Aminar said that Perodua was looking to expand on its general service business, as it plans to claw back lost customers. "Based on the analysis that we have done, we seem to lose our customers immediately after the expiry of the warranty period," he said. "Currently [we are only retaining] around 29-30%. This is something we are working on – we are putting an aggressive figure next year of 35%."
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