Perodua has officially launched the 2021 Aruz. As expected, there will be no price change for the updated seven-seater SUV, so the entry-level X variant is price at RM68,526, while the top AV goes for RM73,226. The prices include the government’s sales and services tax exemption (to last until June 30, 2021), so they are between RM4,374 to RM4,674 cheaper. A five-year or 150,000 km warranty is standard.

The automaker has confirmed that the integrated side steps, complete with the Aruz badging below the rear doors, will be standard for the X and AV variants. Also standard is an automatic door-locking function that kicks in above 20 km/h, but the doors will also automatically unlock themselves in the event of an accident.

As for the colour palette, the new Passion Red metallic paint effectively replaces the previous hero colour Amazon Green, but this shade of red is only exclusive to the 1.5 AV. The four other existing colours remain on offer – Granite Grey, Electric Blue, Glittering Silver, and Ivory White (solid paint).

So, that’s about all the upgrades for the 2021 model year. Both variants share the same 2NR-VE 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine, offering 102 PS at 6,000 rpm and 133 Nm of torque at 4,200 rpm. The Dual VVT-i mill sends drive to the rear wheels via a four-speed 4E-AT automatic transmission, and has a rated fuel consumption of 15.6 km/l (6.4 l/100 km) with the Eco Idle system.

Perodua president and CEO, Dato Zainal Abidin Ahmad said: “Perodua expresses our gratitude to all our valued customers, whose feedback helped us tweak the Aruz to better satisfy the real needs and wants of the majority of Malaysians.”

“With well over 60,000 units sold since its 2019 birth, the Perodua Aruz was already the nation’s best-selling SUV in 2019 and 2020, but, true to the principles of Kaizen, we believe there are always ways we can make our products incrementally better,” he added.