Perodua Begins Plant Construction, Rolls Out New S-Series Line

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin lays the foundation stone for Perodua’s new RM790 million ($252 million) factory and then helps launch the auto maker’s new value-for-money S-Series in the form of variants for the Viva, Myvi and Alza models.

Perodua Managing Director Aminar Rashid Salleh says S-Series line sales are targeted at 7,500 units a month.

“We need to produce more value-added products in order to remain relevant in the market, and the introduction of the S-Series will further boost our sales,” he is quoted as saying by the government’s Bernama news service.

Aminar says the new variants will contribute toward Perodua reaching its 194,000-unit sales target this year as it seeks to maintain its local market share of 30%.

Depending on the specific model, the S-Series lines add such features as power steering, upgraded sound systems, vanity mirrors and storage pockets at no extra cost.

“We have worked diligently to further improve our efficiency and transfer whatever savings we earn to our customers,” Aminar says. “It is our cost-reduction process that we have been practicing for the past two years that allows us to produce more value-added products without increasing the car price.”

As part of this process, Perodua says it now is offering three years’ free service for all models registered after March 15.

The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, adjacent to its existing plant in Rawang, 22 miles (35 km) north of Kuala Lumpur, are scheduled to begin production by mid-2014 with output of 100,000 vehicles a year on a single shift.

The existing plant has a capacity of 200,000 units annually on two shifts.