BYD Malaysia and Sime Darby Auto Imports recently penned a deal to introduce the Chinese firm’s luxury brand Denza to Malaysia. The agreement will designate BYD Malaysia as the official distributor and Sime Darby Auto Imports as the official importer of Denza automobiles. The company claims that its goal with the Denza brand is to give Malaysians a more premium, inventive, and varied EV experience.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Sime Darby Auto Imports to introduce Denza to the Malaysian market in order to increase our selection of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia,” said Mr. Liu Xueliang, General Manager of BYD’s Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Division.
“We are pleased to introduce our cutting-edge EV technology to Malaysia, where there is a growing need for environmentally friendly transportation. We think Denza will revolutionise the high-end EV experience and establish new benchmarks for drivers in Malaysia.”
He went on to say that the company looks forward to a deeper collaboration with BYD as a result of this relationship, which will increase their market share in the EV industry and diversify Sime Darby‘s EV line. “We are dedicated to hastening the emergence of EVs in Malaysia, and we think that introducing Denza will play a big role in this process,” he added.
Eagle Zhao, the managing director of BYD Malaysia, announced that the BYD sub-brand will debut in Malaysia in the first quarter of 2025. Given that a fully camouflaged RHD version was recently spied testing in Malaysia, the D9 should be the first Denza vehicle to enter the country. Only a few months prior, Denza had introduced the RHD D9 in Hong Kong.
The D9 can be purchased as a purely electric car or as a plug-in hybrid. On the basis of BYD’s present offerings, it appears that Malaysia will only receive the latter. The Denza is an EV with up to 374 horsepower and 470 Nm that can be either front-wheel drive (single front-mounted motor) or all-wheel drive (dual motors).
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The D9 is bigger than the segment standard—the Toyota Alphard—and can go from 0 to 100 km/h in less than seven seconds. And as with the Alphard, designers have not held back when penning the signature front grille—which is enormous. Will the new Denza D9 tempt Malaysians to switch to electric vehicles if it is priced and equipped similarly to (or better than) the popular Alphard? Watch this space.