Ever the industrious renderer, Photoshop wizard Theophilus Chin has been at work again – this time dreaming up the forthcoming second-generation Perodua Bezza. In his own words, he has rendered the car several times, most recently last July using the latest Axia as a base.
This latest effort hasn’t brought much new to the table – the front half of the car has still been lifted straight from the Axia. The wheels have at least been changed to the five-split-spoke ones from the base Ativa X, which in these writer’s eyes look more aesthetically pleasing than the Axia’s multi-spokes.
But it’s the rear that has seen the biggest revision – the roofline now slopes further towards the rear, the space in the C-pillar being filled by quarter-light windows aft of the rear doors, creating a six-window graphic along the sides.
The slightly out-of-proportion rear end is also very short – great for balancing out the also-diminutive front, not so great for boot space (which isn’t exactly the Perodua way). It’s a far cry from the dumpy looks of the current Bezza.
There are no prizes for guessing where the individual elements are from – the taillights and rear number plate garnish have been lifted from the Ativa, while the rear bumper (with its black diffuser-style insert) and aforementioned side window graphic are from the Proton S70, as Chin himself alluded to.
Obviously, we still have no idea what the actual next-gen Bezza – which will be exported to other ASEAN countries wearing the Daihatsu badge for the first time – will look like, but it will likely have a different front end treatment compared to the Axia – just like how the current model has a unique face not shared with the original Axia.
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Perodua has also said that the new model will derive some inspiration from the winners of the Asian Compact Sedan Design Challenge (ACSDC) 2023, a contest the national carmaker held in conjunction with the Malaysian Design Council.
The winners were only announced in December, so it’s likely that the Bezza’s design hasn’t been finalised, if it has even started at all – Perodua’s vice president Datuk Ahmad Suhaimi Hashim has already said as much by revealing that the car is still on the drawing board. As such, expect to wait at least a year before the next Bezza actually comes to fruition.
Since it’s still a ways away, we don’t have any technical specifications to go on, but we can bet our bottom dollar that the Bezza will be based on the same Daihatsu New Global Platform (DNGA) as the Axia. It could also share that car’s 67 hp/91 Nm 1.0 litre three-cylinder engine, but given that Perodua is set to introduce its first electric vehicle at the end of next year, might we also see an EV version of the company’s bestselling model?
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