There’s a new car company called DSK Industry,
claiming to be the first electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in Malaysia. It
even goes as far as to call itself the “third Malaysian National car
manufacturer,” and there’s already a car shown on its website called the Murni.
A quick look on the internet revealed that the Murni
isn’t exactly Malaysian, being identical to China’s SiTech DEV1, a new
sub-brand under FAW. Murni’s specifications seem competent – it has a driving
range of 350 km, and a 40-minute charge (via the 6.6 kW AC charger, apparently)
juices up the spent battery to 80%. Otherwise, it takes 5.5 hours for a full
charge via a regular domestic socket. Battery capacity is said to be at 100,000
mAh.
Performance-wise, the 1,120 kg Murni accelerates
from zero to 50 km/h in 4.8 seconds. This is thanks to a 55 kW high-performance
permanent magnet synchronous motor that produces a peak torque of 170 Nm. A
driving range of 100 km consumes about 13.1 kWh of charge.
The electrical circuit is claimed to be IP67-sealed,
and the onboard Battery Management System helps prevent battery overcharging or
over-discharge. There’s also an intelligent thermal management system to
regulate the battery’s operating temperature, and it functions by heating it up
(during cold starts) or cooling it down on a hot day.
It’s claimed to be simplistic in
style, inspired purely by Nordic industrial design. This manifests itself in a
number of things, starting with the closed air intake grille (this hides the
charging port) and elongated C-shaped LED daytime running lights. The car rides
on a set of dual-tone alloys, and the rear gets a pair of slim LED tail lights.
The photos on DSK Industry’s website all show the
car in its native left-hand drive configuration. That aside, the cabin looks
fairly decent, featuring a 10-inch freestanding touchscreen head unit and a
smaller eight-inch digital instrument panel. Below that is a row of physical
toggles, and further down are the air vents.
Between the front seats rests a simple drive
selector knob, behind which is the good old lever for the parking brake. There
appears to be some usable space to store items right below and in front of the
centre tunnel as well.
Interestingly, the Murni is said to be fitted with
the D·OS smart car system, one that DSK Industry claims to have developed
independently. This provides an integrated travel experience from the cloud
through “physical connections, data flow and calculation.” We have no clue what
that means, but the DEV1 also features the same D·OS system, so it’s unclear
how much Murni’s system differs, if at all.
Other key features include a facial recognition
system to unlock and start the car, an app to remotely monitor your car’s
status, as well as a dedicated user ID (D-User) to enable various in-car
connected systems that include web browsing and music/movie streaming. In
China, the car even has a built-in cashless payment system that it calls
“brushing payment.”
In China, the DEV1 carries an asking
price of 100,000 yuan, which is roughly around RM 60,000. For now, DSK
Industry’s website reveal that it’s looking for Malaysian dealers, but funnily
enough the contact number listed is a Singaporean landline, and the Facebook
page is called Autod Singapore.