• Dinamikjaya Motors to launch Kia EV6 in Malaysia in H2 2022
• Sales will be low, capped by shortage in supply
• Bermaz's priority is to stablize Kia's profitability and sales volume, before putting in more resources into EVs

Bermaz Auto, the parent company of Kia distributor Dinamikjaya Motors, is confirmed to launch the fully electric, E-GMP platform Kia EV6 in the second half of this year. This was confirmed by CEO Dato’ Francis Lee in an interview with BFM radio earlier this month.

“We are going to launch it (Kia EV6) in the second half of this year. There’s still a few more months to go,” said Lee.

Previously, Bermaz Auto has told investors of its plan to launch the Kia EV6 in Malaysia but this is the first time Bermaz has confirmed to the public that the Kia EV6 will indeed be launched in Malaysia in H2 2022.

Also read: Kia EV6 confirmed for Malaysia, target launch Q3 / Q4 2022

However, Lee cautioned that Bermaz will only be able to sell very few units of the Kia EV6 and it has nothing to do with the product’s lack of appeal or low demand, but a chronic shortage in supply.

Kia has yet to open its order books for the Kia EV6 and there is no estimated price for the model yet but Lee confirmed that the company has about 15 to 20 buyers who are ready to put their money down on the Kia EV6 even before it’s launched.

“There is a worldwide shortage of EV cars,” said Lee, who added that the problem is not that Bermaz can’t find enough buyers for the Kia EV6, but they don’t have any car to deliver.

“The first unit is coming. We always bring in 1 for testing, to make sure that it says what it does, and so on and so forth, before we actually launch the car,” he added.

The fact that there is a global shortage of EVs and Dinamikjaya Motors still has a lot of work to do to improve the stature of the Kia brand in Malaysia means the EVs are not going to be the main focus for Kia in Malaysia in the near-term.

It’s just basic business sense, what kind of business pays attention to a product that it can’t sell?

“EV cars not going to give me big profit margins. How many cars can I sell a month or a year? So why put a lot of focus on something that’s not going to generate a lot of profit or revenue? So EVs are not going to be a main focus for Bermaz Auto group,” he said.

“We rather to focus on the two new brands that we’ve just embarked on (Kia and Peugeot), to get it to profitability, to stabilize the volume, before we look at EV cars,” he said.

However, Lee emphasized that there will be no delays to launching the Kia EV6, as the model is still on track to be launched this year. It’s just that supply will be a lot less than demand and sales volume will be very low.

The Kia EV6 is a mid-size SUV (yes) and is a sister-car to the equally big Hyundai Ioniq 5, riding on the same E-GMP platform that supports both 400V and 800V DC charging.

It comes in two battery sizes – 58 kWh and 77.4 kWh. Depending on whether it’s an all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive variant, as well as power output, the Kia EV6 has a driving range of between 394 km (58 kWh, RWD, 170 PS) to 528 km (77.4 kWh, RWD, 229 PS) to 400 km (77.4 kWh, AWD, 585 PS), based on WLTP test cycle.

Also read: 3-year waiting list - Australia stops pre-orders for Kia EV6, implications for Malaysia too

In Australia, Kia has stopped accepting any more orders for the Kia EV6 after collecting deposits from 1,800 buyers. Waiting list has stretched to more than 3 years, with an annual allocation of just 500 units.

The shortage in EVs stemmed from the on-going global shortage in semiconductor parts for cars. For EVs, the problem is made worse by a shortage in battery supply and rapid increase in cost of raw materials needed to make batteries.