DRB-Hicom is wanting so as to add two extra automotive manufacturers to its portfolio, and the conglomerate can be contemplating an entry into the industrial automobile sub-sector. This was revealed by DRB-Hicom’s head of automotive distribution Akkbar Danial on the latest EON & Sahabat Media Getaway 2024 occasion.
In a core choices presentation slide displaying ‘new dealerships’, there have been two ‘new manufacturers’ subsequent to good, and when quizzed on the matter, Akkbar mentioned that Proton’s eMAS sub-brand isn’t one of many thriller manufacturers (DRB-Hicom will after all have Proton eMAS dealerships) and that the group is distributor-level partnerships, not merely opening dealerships.
Any hints? “It may very well be industrial (automobiles), it may very well be passenger (automobiles), we’ll examine the market. Passenger, the discounting is just too huge now, I believe to enter passenger is a bit difficult. Industrial is sort of an attention-grabbing space to enter as you don’t must cope with B2C, it’s extra B2B – it’s fairly attention-grabbing,” mentioned Akkbar, who can be CEO of EON, DRB-Hicom’s auto dealership group.
You’d suppose that Malaysia’s EV sub-segment is fairly saturated now, with extra choices than consumers within the present market, however the former Honda exec isn’t ruling an EV model out. “It’s saturated, however you need to do not forget that we have now fairly an enormous presence within the fleet market,” Akkbar mentioned, including that there are merchandise that may complement the choices of its current manufacturers.
By the way in which, automobile rental large Avis’ Malaysian enterprise is below the DRB-Hicom umbrella and the Avis fleet might need a future want for EVs. Presently, of the DRB-Hicom manufacturers, good is a pure EV firm with two fashions (#1 and #3) and Audi has a few e-tron fashions, however they’re all somewhat fancy, and in Audi’s case, very high-end too.
The DRB-Hicom auto distribution chief then willingly got here again to industrial automobiles, which we’ll take as a robust trace. “For me, industrial is sort of an attention-grabbing space. It’s to not say that I’m uninterested in doing retail for passenger automobiles – it is extremely difficult – however sure, it (industrial automobiles) is an angle that we’ll look into,” he mentioned.
Presently, DRB-Hicom’s automotive distribution portfolio has EON (dealerships for Proton and good), EON Auto Mart (Mitsubishi), Euromobil (Audi), Hicom Auto (Volkswagen), ACM (Isuzu) and DRB-Hicom Industrial Autos (DHCV, Daihatsu).
Additionally below the auto division is financing arm EON Capital, DRB-Hicom Auto Resolution (DHAS), Avis and EON Petromin. A JV with Saudi Arabia’s Petromin Corp, the latter is the group’s comparatively new enterprise to enter the workshop and automobile servicing enterprise.
Away from retail and providers, DRB-Hicom can be the native associate for a number of Japanese OEMs – it has a 34% stake in Honda Malaysia, a 48% stake in Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia and controls 49% of Isuzu Malaysia. There’s additionally the 51% stake in Proton, after all.
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