Have you checked out our review of the Perodua QV-E? If you haven’t, grab some snacks and tune in to our hour-long video where our own Hafriz Shah walks you through the national carmaker’s first electric vehicle (EV).
In this post, we’re expanding upon something that was mentioned in the review, which is the cost of maintenance. As mentioned by Hafriz, Perodua claims it will only cost around RM1,400 to service the QV-E over five years, so let’s look at the numbers and draw some comparisons.
It’s widely assumed that EVs are cheaper to maintain compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, and this is certainly the case here. Looking at the QV-E’s service schedule, owners will be paying RM1,416.08 over a period of five years, which is as per Perodua’s claim.
Service intervals are on a yearly basis, with a vehicle inspection and cabin filter replacement being carried out at every visit. Meanwhile, changing out the oil in the electric drive system (presumably for the reduction gear in the transmission), which also requires drain and fill plugs to be replaced, is carried out every two years.
Perodua doesn’t explicit state how much the parts and lubricants cost, but intervals where just the cabin filter is swapped out looks to cost RM32.80 in parts. This suggests that the EDS oil and accompanying parts cost RM211.20. There is also a coolant change carried out in the fifth year (100,000 km) that presumably costs RM142.80.
Bringing the Perodua Myvi into the conversation, the “king of the road” costs RM3,368.70 to maintain over five years. That makes it nearly 138% more compared to the QV-E, with obvious reasons for the differential being the more frequent lubricant changes in addition to other parts that an ICE car has that an EV doesn’t.
With a more complex ICE car like the Proton X50, which has a turbocharger, the costs go up even further. Over a five-year period, it’ll cost you RM5,048.70 to service an X50, which is around 256% more. As we’ve noted in the past, while the X50 no longer needs a timing belt change after five years, it still needs a drive belt replacement at month 66 (110,000 km) that costs RM147.57.
On the mention of Proton, we have to include the eMas 5, which has a more detailed service schedule but with “irregular intervals.” Where the QV-E adopts a six-month interval, the eMas 5’s first service takes place at the third month (5,000 km), where its reduction gear oil is swapped out at a parts cost of RM117.33.
The following interval comes 12 months later (25,000 km), with the cabin filter (RM41.22) now being a recurring replacement item every 12 months throughout the eMas 5’s life. At the 27-month mark (45,000 km), brake fluid (RM53.61) is changed out, and this repeats every two years. The next reduction gear oil change happens three years after the first at 39 months (65,000 km), while a coolant change (RM127.41) happens at 51 months (85,000 km).
If we didn’t limit the comparison to a five-year period and look at the complete service schedule of both the QV-E and eMas 5, the former’s schedule goes up to nine years (180,000 km) whereas it is ten years plus three months (123 months; 205,000 km) for the Proton EV.
With the wider scope, the QV-E would go through four oil changes for its EDS in its second, fourth, sixth and eight years. As for the eMas 5, its reduction gear gets fresh oil just three times over 123 months during its third, 39th and 87th month, along with one more coolant change at month 99.
The final tally for the QV-E over nine years is RM2,520.48, just RM28.14 more than the eMas 5 at RM2,492.34 over 123 months. We kept to a five-year period initially to keep things as consistent as possible.
With the trips to the service centre covered, what about other ownership costs? Let’s start with road tax, where the QV-E and its 150-kW electric motor means you’ll be paying RM160 for road tax yearly. For the eMas 5, it depends on which variant you go for. The base Prime’s 58-kW motor entails a RM30 road tax, while the range-topping Premium and its 85-kW motor sees a road tax of RM60.
With great power comes greater road tax, but the QV-E will get from 0-100 km/h in just 7.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 165 km/h. Proton doesn’t state either in its eMas 5 brochure and merely lists an arbitrary 0-50 km/h time of either 4.4 seconds (Prime) or 3.9 seconds (Premium).
Additionally, the QV-E’s 52.5-kWh battery provides a WLTP-rated range of 370 km, which is more than the eMas 5 that offers just 225 km (Prime; 30.12 kWh) or 325 km (Premium; 40.16 kWh). The Proton EV does claw back with better DC fast charging at 71 kW for the Premium (not so with the Prime that manages 53 kW), which gets its battery from a 30-80% state of charge (SoC) in 21 minutes.
The QV-E is limited to just 60 kW and its larger battery needs 30 minutes to get from 30-80% SoC. Charging costs is dependent on your approach to it, with public charging likely to extract more from your wallet compared to charging at home (6.6 kW AC for both EVs), even as the Energy Commission’s (ST) Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA) rate is expected to continue rising due to the Middle East conflict. For ICE cars, it’s RM1.99 per litre of RON 95 petrol for up to 200 litres per month under the Budi Madani RON 95 (Budi95) fuel subsidy programme.
The QV-E also rides on 18-inch alloy wheels, and the 215/50R18 tyres paired to them will certainly cost more to replace than the eMas 5 that either comes with 15- (Prime; 205/65R15 tyres) or 16-inch (Premium; 205/60R16 tyres) wheels.
There’s also the matter of purchase price. The eMas 5 starts at RM59,800 (on-the-road without insurance and before any rebates) for the Prime, while the Premium goes for RM72,800. As for the QV-E, it recently got a price cut and the option for an outright purchase in June this year after a less-than-lukewarm response to its launch.
At present, with a limited-time (until September 30) rebate of RM6,500 included, the QV-E goes for RM63,499. This is with battery leasing that also saw a reduction in terms of monthly fee to RM215 (previously RM275). As such, the QV-E is RM16,501 less than when it was first introduced.
Existing buyers have reported Perodua refunding them the RM16,501 difference as a show of goodwill by the company. If you plan to buy the QV-E outright with no battery leasing, it will cost you RM87,499, or about 20% more than the top-spec eMas 5 on sale.
So, there you have it. Over five years, the QV-E costs more to maintain compared to its other “home-branded” EV, the eMas 5, with both being cheaper to run compared to ICE cars. After checking out our video review and assessing everything discussed here, which one of these EVs would you go for?
