Cash rebate for 3,100 customers affected by Myvi production halt

the temporary production halt of its new Myvi, Perodua will reimburse the remaining 3,100 customers who were originally set to receive their Myvi before Sept 1 with a cash amount.

“Our authorised personnel will be contacting each and every one of those customers whose booked Myvis were supposed to be registered before Sept 1 to capitalise on the zero-GST tax holiday prices,” Perodua Sales Sdn Bhd Managing Director Datuk Dr Zahari Husin said.

“We wish to offer our valued customers a cash rebate upon registration of their vehicles, as compensation for the considerable Australia and Finland, currently the only place in the European Union that extracts cobalt.

Bringing Sweden into the fold is important for European carmakers because at the moment, 60 per cent of global production centres on the Democratic Republic of Congo, where corruption is rampant and Amnesty International has chronicled the use of child labour at some artisanal mines. Most of Congo’s cobalt, meanwhile, is refined in China, which has dominated the battery supply chain.

If exploited, Sweden’s cobalt reserves could power more than four million vehicles, something the government is betting will revive the mining industry after this decade’s commodity slump stifled new projects. Last year, it inconvenience caused to them. In the meantime, we will keep them updated on their Myvi delivery times,” he added.

Vehicle demand shot up after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate was zero rated on June 1.

Buyers clamoured to have their vehicles registered before Sept 1, when the Sales and Service Tax (SST) was set to be reintroduced.

Perodua made an announcement on Aug 20 that production of the new Myvi, had been interrupted due to a vendor supply disruption.

“We sincerely apologise to not just those whose orders could not be fulfilled before the SST issued a record number of exploration permits for battery metals, including 48 for cobalt, more than all the preceding years this century combined.

“Sweden won’t reach the levels that Congo has, but it can definitely play a part in the European market,” said Par Weihed, a professor in ore geology and pro vice chancellor at the Lulea University of Technology in northern Sweden.

“There is very good geological potential for basically all critical metals.”

In a country that spans 1,500km from top to bottom, the drill-core library is the best place to start the exploration process. The collection was drawn from 18,000 drill holes and the cylindrical ore samples span 3,000km, reintroduction, but each and every single customer who has booked our new Myvi after them, as this production disruption will evidently delay deliveries of Myvis ordered more recently.

“Customers always come first at Perodua. We fully understand the frustration and grievances caused by this unintended development, and are doing all we can to ensure Myvi production resumes as soon as possible,” said Dato’ Dr Zahari.

To date, over 68,000 Perodua Myvis have been delivered out of over 120,000 bookings made since the hatchback was launched in November last year. compared with Congo’s 3.5 million. Even Finland has resources amounting to about 446,000 tonnes, although not all of that may be economically feasible to extract.

Yet the EU needs every ounce of cobalt it can get if it has any chance of achieving a plan unveiled last year to build a homegrown “battery ecosystem” that reduces reliance on Africa and China.

To this end, Finland, home to a rock library approaching Sweden’s in size, set up a state-owned company to support battery production.

In Sweden, two former Tesla executives established Northvolt to build a battery factory with capacity for 32 GWh, enough to power 320,000 Model-S Teslas every year with 100 KWh packs.

That’s still a few years away, and in the meantime, giants like Panasonic Corp and LG Chem Ltd are dominating the battery scene.

New Asian entrants Energy Absolute PCL in Thailand and China’s BYD Co are also planning bigger factories than Northvolt’s.

Even if Sweden’s share of the pie is ultimately tiny, miners aren’t about to leave any stone unturned.

Scott’s other clients include Berkut Minerals, an Australian firm exploring an old cobalt mine, and United Kingdom-based Scandivanadium Ltd, which is searching for vanadium, a metal traditionally used to harden steel, but that’s increasingly popular in making batteries for commercial energy storage.

“Looking at something that hasn’t had a pair of eyes on it for 50 or 60 years is awesome,” Scott said about studying old core at the archive. “That’s why we’re all in this business — it’s the thrill of the chase.”