DRB-Hicom is trying 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 exhibiting ‘new dealerships’, there have been two ‘new manufacturers’ subsequent to good, and when quizzed on the matter, Akkbar stated that Proton’s eMAS sub-brand isn’t one of many thriller manufacturers (DRB-Hicom will in fact have Proton eMAS dealerships) and that the group is taking a look at distributor-level partnerships, not merely opening dealerships.
Any hints? “It might be industrial (autos), it might be passenger (autos), we’ll examine the market. Passenger, the discounting is just too huge now, I feel to enter passenger is a bit difficult. Business is kind of an attention-grabbing space to enter as you don’t must cope with B2C, it’s extra B2B – it’s fairly attention-grabbing,” stated Akkbar, who can be CEO of EON, DRB-Hicom’s auto dealership group.
You’d assume 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 must keep in mind that we now have fairly an enormous presence within the fleet market,” Akkbar stated, including that there are merchandise that may complement the choices of its present manufacturers.
By the best way, automobile rental big Avis’ Malaysian enterprise is below the DRB-Hicom umbrella and the Avis fleet might need a future want for EVs. At present, 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 reasonably fancy, and in Audi’s case, very high-end too.
The DRB-Hicom auto distribution chief then willingly got here again to industrial autos, which we’ll take as a robust trace. “For me, industrial is kind of an attention-grabbing space. It’s to not say that I’m bored with doing retail for passenger autos – it is rather difficult – however sure, it (industrial autos) is an angle that we’ll look into,” he stated.
At present, DRB-Hicom’s automotive distribution portfolio has EON (dealerships for good and Proton), EON Auto Mart (Mitsubishi), Euromobil (Audi), Hicom Auto (Volkswagen), ACM (Isuzu) and DRB-Hicom Business Automobiles (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 companion 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, in fact.
Trying to promote your automobile? Promote it with Carro.
