KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Weststar Maxus will be launching the Maxus MIFA 9 in Malaysia next month and is set to become the first fully-electric MPV in our market.
The official distributor for Maxus vehicles has been teasing the MPV for quite some time mainly through its social media channels but only a few days ago the company revealed the exact launch date on its Facebook page.
While Weststar Maxus already launched an EV for our market before in the form of Maxus eDeliver 3, that model is designed specifically for the commercial market. On the other hand, the MIFA 9 is a consumer-level MPV and will likely be competing in the same space as the popular Toyota Alphard & Vellfire.
Some may argue that there were already several fully-electric MPVs in Malaysia such as Mercedes EQV and Volkswagen ID. Buzz. However, both of these vehicles were not officially released into our market and these units were grey imports.
Maxus MIFA 9 quick specs
At the moment, it is not yet known how many variants of the electric MPV that Weststar Maxus will bring to Malaysia. That being said, the MIFA 9 that SAIC has released in right-hand drive (RHD) markets such as the UK, Australia, and Singapore features a front-wheel drive setup.
The MPV has been fitted with a 180kW (241hp) electric motor that also produces 350Nm of torque and enables it to go from 0 to 100km/h in under 10 seconds. The MIFA 9 has a top speed of 180km/h, according to the spec sheets from all three markets.
When it comes to battery, the MIFA 9 features a 90kW ternary lithium battery pack which allows the MPV to deliver a WLTP-rated range of up to 440km depending on respective variants. According to the Singaporean specs sheet, the MPV is capable of supporting a DC fast charger of up to 120kW and takes around 30 minutes to charge its battery from 30 per cent to 80 per cent.
The MPV also has AC charging capability although it takes much longer to charge the MPV through this method. Specifically, you are looking at a charging time of around 8.5 hours to go 5 per cent to 100 per cent via the MIFA 9’s on-board 11kW AC charger.
It is unclear whether Maxus includes a Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) feature for MIFA 9 that is released outside of China. Over in its native country, V2L is a standard feature across all variants and it allows the MPV to power up external electrical appliances with up to 6.6kW of energy.
There are still plenty of features about the MIFA 9 that we would like to talk about but for now, let’s save them once the fully-electric MPV receives its official launch in Malaysia. So, stay tuned for more coming your way on 8 November. — SoyaCincau
