The Perodua Kancil was a city car

City car

A city car is a small car intended for use primarily in an urban area.City cars are sold worldwide and most automotive industry manufacturers have one or two in their line-up. In North-America city cars are often referred to simply as "subcompacts" alongside the superminis. These kind of cars...

 manufactured by Malaysian automobile manufacturer Perodua

Perodua

The ' , usually abbreviated to Perodua , is Malaysia's second largest automobile manufacturer after Proton. It was established in 1992 and launched their first car, the Perodua Kancil in August 1994. 'M2’ was refers to the codename which was used when the project to establish Perodua was still Top...

 from August 1994 to 2009. The car is essentially a badge-engineered

Badge engineering

Badge engineering is an ironic term that describes the rebadging of one product as another...

 3rd generation Daihatsu Mira

Daihatsu Mira

The Daihatsu Mira , is a kei car-type vehicle built by the Japanese car maker Daihatsu. It comes with a variety of options and chassis variations, with the latest variant having four models: "Mira", "Mira AVY", "Mira Gino" and "Mira VAN"...

.
The Kancil was Perodua's first car after its founding in 1992. It is a small five-door hatchback vehicle on a monocoque

Monocoque

Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...

 framework that can seat five people. The Kancil, like its predecessors, is a slightly modified Daihatsu Mira

Daihatsu Mira

The Daihatsu Mira , is a kei car-type vehicle built by the Japanese car maker Daihatsu. It comes with a variety of options and chassis variations, with the latest variant having four models: "Mira", "Mira AVY", "Mira Gino" and "Mira VAN"...

 L200; badge engineering

Badge engineering

Badge engineering is an ironic term that describes the rebadging of one product as another...

 is prevalent in Malaysia's automotive industry, having begun in 1985 with car maker Proton

Proton (company)

Proton is a Malaysian automobile manufacturer headquartered in Subang Jaya and Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, with a manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak. Founded in 1983, it was Malaysia's only carmaker until the establishment of its competitor and arch-rival, Perodua, in 1993...

, which based its cars on retired models of Mitsubishi Motors

Mitsubishi Motors

is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...

.

Subsequent Kancils were only rejuvenated cosmetically as Perodua maintained the monocoque structure and tweaked its engines.

The Kancil is named after the mouse deer (chevrotain

Chevrotain

Chevrotains, also known as mouse deer, are small ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, the only members of the infraorder Tragulina. There are 10 living species in three genera, but there are also several species only known from fossils...

) native to Malaysia.
Following its release in 1994, the Kancil became an instant success in Malaysia.