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 (pictured above).
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 (6.6 kW AC charger) 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.
Next, design. 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 (kind of like a BMW), 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.”
So, if this were to make it to Malaysia, would you be interested in getting the DSK Murni? In China, the DEV1 carries an asking price of 100,000 yuan, which is roughly around RM60,000. For now, DSK Industry’s website reveal that it’s looking for Malaysian dealers, but funnily the contact number listed is a Singaporean landline, and the Facebook page is called Autod Singapore.
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