BYD Malaysia had earlier today announced Inokom Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (Inokom), a subsidiary of Sime Motors based in Kulim, Kedah, as its local assembly partner. The announcement follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at BYD's global headquarters in Shenzhen, China between the parties mentioned above. This finally clears up all doubt about the Chinese company's Malaysian local assembly future.
From the earlier news that it would be building its own facility in Tanjung Malim, which led to many automotive pundits discussing what will be the fate of BYD to now being finalised by this piece of news on how the brand will locally assemble completely knocked-down (CKD) vehicles in Malaysia.
According to the press release, BYD Malaysia has appointed Inokom following an assessment of the local market and available manufacturing capabilities. Inokom’s vehicle assembly operations, experienced workforce and existing infrastructure provide a practical foundation for BYD Malaysia to advance its local assembly plans by building on Malaysia's existing automotive capabilities.
“Local assembly is an important part of BYD's long-term commitment to Malaysia. Partnering with Sime to assemble at Inokom allows us to build on established automotive manufacturing capabilities as we progress our local assembly plans. We aim to bring BYD's expertise in new energy vehicles and battery technologies closer to the Malaysian market while contributing to the continued development of the local automotive industry.
“This partnership marks another step in BYD's growth in Malaysia alongside BYD Sime Motors. We remain focused on developing our local presence and exploring opportunities to deepen our investment in Malaysia through collaboration with local industry partners,” said Jacob Ma, Managing Director of BYD Malaysia.
“BYD's decision to partner with Sime reflects the strength of Malaysia's automotive manufacturing capabilities and the expertise we have developed over the years. Our experience in vehicle assembly, supported by an established workforce and local supply chain, provides a strong foundation for this collaboration.
“Beyond vehicle assembly, partnerships such as this create opportunities to strengthen Malaysia's automotive ecosystem, support local businesses and develop capabilities that can contribute to the industry s long-term growth. We look forward to working with BYD Malaysia to build on these strengths and create greater value for Malaysia's automotive sector,” said Dato’ Jeffri Salim Davidson, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sime.
The MoU was signed by Liu Xueliang, Vice President of BYD and General Manager of BYD Asia Pacific Auto Sales Division, and Dato’ Jeffri Salim Davidson, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sime. The signing was witnessed by representatives including Jacob Ma, Managing Director of BYD Malaysia, and Jeffrey Gan, Managing Director of Southeast Asia, Sime Motors.
The partnership marks an important step in BYD Malaysia's plans to establish local vehicle assembly operations, building on existing manufacturing capabilities and strengthening its integration with Malaysia's automotive industry. Further details on the local assembly programme will be shared indue course.
(Editor's POV) Personally, it actually makes a lot of sense to just go with an established automotive assembly facility like the one we see in Kulim. The plan for BYD to have their own assembly facility could have also worked, but in terms of volume, an assembly line for 10,000 to 20,000 units yearly would not really need a whole new facility. Of course, BYD is also known to have a lot of integration in terms of its supply chain over in China and they have optimised their cost and efficiency ratios to include this parts integration. Having a whole new setup would require more time in bringing in parts vendors and so many other details that it would have been easier to just utilise an established assembly facility which has vendors in place, where it would be easier to just use the current setup rather than start from scratch. Add the fact that Sime Motors are currently the ones actually distributing and selling BYD in Malaysia, it actually helps that they are the ones assembling in via Inokom now.
I think this makes most business sense for BYD.
No comments:
Post a Comment