Stellantis has announced that it will be taking over sales and distribution of Peugeot vehicles from Bermaz. Stellantis will establish a new national sales company (NSC) in Malaysia in the first quarter of 2024, and the NSC will be the official Stellantis entity directing and managing sales and distribution of the group’s vehicles in Malaysia. For now, it’s just Peugeot, but there will be more brands coming in the future.
In conjunction with this strategic change, Bermaz, the current distributor for Peugeot in Malaysia, “will in the meantime continue to work with Stellantis for vehicle sales through its own network,” Stellantis said in a statement.
This change is part of Stellantis’ growth ambitions in ASEAN region, in line with its electrification plans and the company’s global Dare Forward 2030 strategy.
“We are excited to announce this new business strategy to serve the Malaysian market with more products and services under the new NSC structure. This includes the future introduction of new brands to Malaysia under the Stellantis portfolio,” said Daniel Gonzalez, COO for ASEAN and general distributors at Stellantis.
The Malaysia NSC will be led by Jamie Francis Morais, who is the current head of aftersales for the ASEAN and general distributors operations for Stellantis. Morais has 19 years of experience in the automotive industry and has worked in aftersales, network, customer service, quality, sales and training.
Bermaz will continue to work with Stellantis during this transition period, “with both companies remaining steadfast in their commitment to serve Peugeot customers with uninterrupted vehicle service, parts, warranty and aftersales service in Malaysia,” Stellantis said.
“From the onset of our partnership, we adopted the role of being the custodian of the Peugeot brand in Malaysia, as we are passionate in building brands. Hence, we gladly accepted the challenge in 2020 and together with the Stellantis team, we worked diligently to further develop the brand in Malaysia. Today, we are proud to be able to steer it in the direction where Stellantis is ready to take it further. We are fully supportive of Stellantis’ global ambition,” said Bermaz Auto executive chairman Tan Sri Ben Yeoh.
Moving forward, Stellantis’ new direction and strategy for ASEAN includes its electrification ambitions, evaluating the potential of its Gurun plant as a regional manufacturing hub for EVs, and driving consumer adoption of EVs in the region.
Regional priorities revolve around a commitment to sustainability under Stellantis’ Dare Forward 2030 strategy. The automaker is investing over RM2 billion to introduce the STLA Medium platform to the ASEAN region. This modular platform enables Stellantis to be able to produce multi-energy vehicles (BEV, ICE, MHEV) and local manufacture of cars from Stellantis’ house of brands such as Jeep and Citroen.
New Peugeot models that are coming in 2024 are the new 408, e-2008 EV and CKD Landtrek pick-up truck.
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