Sime Motors – the automotive business unit of the 115-year old Sime Group – celebrates its 45th anniversary this year as Malaysia’s largest automotive retailer with the largest market share. This comes from representing global automotive brands such as BMW, MINI, BMW Motorrad, BYD, DENZA, Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Porsche in its portfolio.
The Sime Group (formerly Sime Darby Group) also has the Toyota, Lexus and Perodua brands as a result of acquiring the UMW Group in 2023. However, those brands are under Sime UMW, a separate subsidiary from Sime Motors.
Although Sime Motors celebrates 45 years of business in Malaysia, its involvement in the automotive retail business actually goes back even longer. As Sime Darby Motors (its original name), it started an association with BMW by acquiring the BMW Concessionaires dealership in Hong Kong in 1968. From that time, Sime Motors would take on BMW representation in other Asian countries to become the German brand’s largest retailer in the region.
Starting with Ford
In Malaysia, Sime Motors started off with its first passenger car brand when PERNAS and Sime Darby jointly took over the Ford franchise in 1981. This was when Ford Malaysia (a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company) gave up its direct involvement in Malaysia, partly due to the requirements of the New Economic Policy. To manage the Ford business, Sime established AMIM Holdings and also had the Associated Motor Industries (AMI) assembly plant in Shah Alam, Selangor.
AMI, one of the first group of assembly plants in Malaysia, was Sime Motors’ first assembly plant and assembled for brands such as BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda and Land Rover. At one point in the late 1990s, it even assembled the Proton Saga Aeroback under contract.
AMIM Holdings developed the Ford brand well and by the mid-1990s, it was a strong brand with products in every segment. Seeing potential for further growth, Ford decided to come back and ‘control its own destiny’, as a senior Ford executive put it. The American automaker took an initial 30% share in the late 1990s and then raised it to 49% (the maximum allowed for a foreign-owned company then) in 2000, with Sime Motors as the other shareholder
AMIM Holdings was renamed Ford Malaysia Sdn Bhd to reflect Ford’s substantial presence. The joint venture benefitted AMI as Ford upgraded the plant to make a modern generation of products. As it had quite a lot of capacity, it still handled contract assembly for some other companies, including BMW Malaysia and Mazda.
The early 2000s saw the Ford brand stronger than ever with new generations of the Focus and Fiesta as well as the popular Ranger truck. However, by 2007, the global economic crisis hit the car industry and Ford struggled to stay afloat. Its overseas activities had to be scaled back and once again, it pulled out of Malaysia.
Fortunately, Sime Motors already had experience in the Ford business and was able to take over distribution and marketing activities immediately, ensuring that there was no disruption to cause inconvenience and uncertainty for owners. Auto ConneXion was established as a new company to handle the Ford business.
The AMI plant, being a joint-venture asset, was sold off (to Tan Chong) and with that move, local assembly of Ford vehicles also ended. Although there was the option of transferring assembly to Inokom, a Sime Motors-owned plant in Kedah – as BMW had done – Ford decided it would import vehicles for sale in Malaysia. It would be 7 years before a Ford model (the Transit) would be assembled in Malaysia again – but only for a short while.
Sime Motors and BMW Group
As mentioned earlier, Sime Motors and BMW have a long association going back to 1968. Since then, the two companies have had a very successful partnership at all levels, from retail to distribution and manufacturing. It is in Malaysia that the partnership is most extensive as it is not only are BMW and MINI vehicles assembled at the Inokom plant in Kedah. Some BMW engines are assembled at Sime Darby Auto Engineering which is within the same area, and vehicles are also exported.
Sime Motors had taken on the BMW franchise in 1987 from BMW Concessionaires and it had created Auto Bavaria to handle the business. At that time, Auto Bavaria was a division in Tractors Malaysia which would later become a subsidiary of Sime Darby. Eventually, after various changes in the Sime Darby Group, Auto Bavaria would become a unit in the Sime Darby Motor Group which is now Sime Motors.
Although BMW Group is involved in many local activities and manages marketing and distribution, Auto Bavaria still plays a major role as the leading dealer group providing the vital sales and aftersales services throughout Malaysia.
In April 2025, Sime Motors expanded its BMW/MINI retail business with the establishment of Performance Motors Malaysia. This is a strategic joint venture between Sime Motors and Ingress Corporation which became an authorised BMW dealer in 2008.
Success story with Porsche
Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) is another success story for Sime Motors in Malaysia. It has represented Porsche since 2010 and although the German sportscar brand has been in Malaysia longer, it has been under the Sime Motors subsidiary that Porsche has moved strongly ahead in this market.
Since its establishment, SDAP (or Porsche Malaysia) has grown from strength to strength. From modest beginnings in retail, the company has grown from a single outlet in Glenmarie, Selangor to 4 dealerships across the country.
The efforts put in by SDAP as well as Sime Motors have paid off as Porsche has recognised Malaysia as a place where they can set up a base from which they can grow further in the region. They therefore made a strategic decision to set up an assembly operation for the first time ever outside Germany, entrusting the Inokom plant to build their popular Cayenne SUV from March 2022.
Satisfied that Inokom could produce vehicles to the quality standards comparable to the plant in Germany, Porsche went to the next step of assigning a second model – the Cayenne S E-Hybrid Coupe – which will be for not only the Malaysian market but also for export to neighbouring countries.
Leading in the EV market
When the government announced the push towards EVs, Sime Motors was among the first to begin offering fully electric vehicles through Hyundai Sime Darby Motors. It also began a partnership with BYD to become the exclusive importer and distributor of BYD vehicles. The company allocated RM500 million to establish a network of BYD showrooms around the country.
Starting from December 2022 with the launch of the ATTO 3, BYD Sime Motors has shown the same dedication to brand-building and network development as it has with its other brands. This has resulted in BYD being the No.1 brand in the growing EV segment with many of its models being among the most popular EVS. In the first half of 2025, 6,015 BYD vehicles – all fully electric – were sold, accounting for about 35% of the EV segment.
Through its subsidiaries selling EVs, Sime Motors has also been contributing to building the EV charging network in the country. Working with KINETA Sdn Bhd, a Sime Group subsidiary offering charging solutions, charging stations have been set up at all the retail outlets of its subsidiaries.
Besides new vehicle sales, Sime Motors also has subsidiaries involved in used vehicle sales and aftersales services. These are Auto Selection for used cars, Drivecare (a multi-franchise one-stop service centre) and EV Next for used EVs which has potential in view of the increasing number of EVs.
“Sime Motors’ 45-year journey has been instrumental to the Group’s long-standing commitment to innovation, sustainability and creating value for our customers,” said Dato’ Jeffri Salim Davidson, Group CEO of Sime. “The Motors business is an important growth driver for Sime, and we are proud to see how Sime Motors has become a trusted name in Malaysia and a key force in the region’s mobility landscape. As we celebrate this 45th year milestone, we look forward to unlocking new opportunities, particularly in electric mobility and to the wider Asia Pacific market.”
Anniversary Celebrations
To mark its 45th anniversary, Sime Motors is having a number of nationwide activities with exclusive deals and a chance to win a BMW 2-Series as well as monthly giveaways from September until December 2025. Orchestrating Excellence, an orchestra concert specially curated to celebrate 45 years of automotive excellence in Malaysia, is also among the activities.
In October, there will be a 45-hour sales marathon which promises to be a record-breaking event with unmatched offers. There will also be customer and staff engagements, including retro-themed nights, sports events and engagements celebrating the Sime Motors community.
