The Wuling Bingo might be the best way for Malaysia to reach its EV adoption targets.
While BYD might be leading the current EV sales charts in Malaysia, there’s another player doing more impressive numbers in Indonesia and it’s Wuling. Wuling Motors has been around for 43 years and over the years has evolved to be one of the largest ‘affordable’ electric vehicle (EV) OEMs on the market. We mention this brand because they’re about to enter the Malaysian market with Tan Chong Motor Holdings as strategic ally.
Now many details are unknown at this point and will only be revealed later on in the month. However, just looking at the most successful Wuling EV model in Indonesia, the Bingo, we can get a clue as to what to expect here. The Wuling Bingo sold 1,876 units in January 2024, beating out its competition from VinFast who are quite prominent in that market.
To give you an idea of the size of the Wuling Bingo, we’ve put its dimensions up against two popular ICE-powered hatchbacks in Malaysia, the Perodua Axia and Perodua Myvi. We’re using the measurements from the latest 2nd generation models.
| Axia | Bingo | Myvi | |
| Wheelbase | 2,525 mm | 2,560 mm | 2,500 mm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 3,760 mm | 3,950 mm | 3,895 mm |
| Width | 1,665 mm | 1,708 mm | 1,735 mm |
| Height | 1,505 mm | 1,580 mm | 1,515 mm |
As you can see, the Wuling Bingo falls somewhere between these two models in terms of width, but is actually the tallest car of the three, and it’s also the longest from bumper to bumper with the longest wheelbase too. It sits in between the Axia and Myvi in terms of width, though.
In Indonesia, the Wuling Bingo EV is priced at just over RM100,000 with the higher tier model coming in closer to RM115,000 despite some tax incentives for EVs there. Equipment includes synthetic leather upholstery, dual 10.25″ screens, automatic air conditioning, an electric handbrake, auto brake hold, reversing camera, tyre pressure monitoring, push button start and more.
Unfortunately, the battery and motor specifications are nothing to write home about. The single front-mounted motor has an output of 67 horsepower and 150Nm of torque – sufficient but on the lower end of things in the EV space. The battery pack uses LFP chemistry with a capacity of 31.9kWh on the base model and 37.9kWh on the higher-tier model. This gives modest range numbers of 333km and 410km. AC charging speed is abysmal at 3.3kW, but Wuling claims fast charging from 30-80% takes just 35 minutes.
Personally, I don’t think this is the right model for our market unless Tan Chong Motor Holdings can find a way to price it below RM100,000. This is because it will face still competition from much more modern, larger, faster and better equipped models from Proton and BYD.
