Now this is a big surprise. The Indonesian government has more or less confirmed that the Daihatsu Sirion, which is a Perodua Myvi imported from Malaysia, will be getting a new CVT-type automatic transmission by 2022, replacing the current model’s 4-speed automatic.

According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs announcement No.40 for Year 2021 regarding adjustments on vehicle tax calculation, two unnamed models with the model code M804RS and suffix 1.3 CVT have been added to the list of gazette values of vehicles. M804RS is also the model code for the Daihatsu Sirion.

Distributor Astra Daihatsu Motor Indonesia only sells 1.3-litre variants of the Perodua Myvi (Daihatsu Sirion).

Since the Daihatsu Sirion is imported from Perodua’s plant in Rawang, you can be certain that the new CVT-type transmission will also be adopted for the Malaysian market Perodua Myvi.

The pace of this development comes as a surprise. Based on past history, it’s easy to predict that all future Perodua models will eventually adopt what’s currently available in the Perodua Ativa, including the very refined D-CVT (Dual-mode CVT) step-less transmission.

More about the Daihatsu/Perodua's Dual-mode CVT here.

We have previously speculated that this new transmission will be fitted into the next generation Perodua Myvi, which we predict will be launched in Malaysia sometime around 2024 / 2025.

Also read: Next-gen 2024 Perodua Myvi likely to get the Ativa’s D-CVT and turbo engine

Clearly this is no longer correct, as the new D-CVT will be introduced within the current generation model.

Seeing that the model is already on Indonesia’s vehicles gazette values list, it will certainly be launched within the next few months, which also implies that our local Perodua Myvi will receive the new D-CVT transmission very soon, probably before 2021 ends.

Remember that both the Malaysian specs Myvi and export market Sirion are produced on the same line at Perodua's Rawang plant.

Price up for Perodua Myvi with CVT?

But don’t get too excited yet. Like all new features, fitting the D-CVT will certainly cost more. For Indonesia, the Sirion’s gazette value has gone up by around 5 to 6 percent.

Currently, prices for the 4-speed automatic Perodua Myvi starts at RM 43,029 for the 1.3-litre variant, and RM 50,530 for the 1.5-litre variant.

Assuming that the same 5 to 6 percent increase in prices is applied to Malaysia under the current SST-exempted period, the new CVT-equipped Perodua Myvi will start at around RM45k and RM 53k for the 1.3-litre and 1.5-litre respectively. With SST reinstated by 1-January 2022, prices will be even higher.

5-speed manual variant to be dropped?

The gazette values list shows only two CVT-equipped variants of the new Sirion. Previously, the Indonesian market Sirion was offered with either a 4-speed automatic or a 5-speed manual.

The deletion of the manual transmission model will most likely be mirrored in Malaysia too. Of the six Myvi variants offered in Malaysia, only one variant, the 1.3L G, is a manual, and it’s a slow seller.