Earlier today, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia) presented an overview of the progress its many initiatives to catalyse green growth have made over the past three years. Among these is the National Electric Mobility Blueprint, aimed at positioning Malaysia as the EV marketplace in the region.
Though many of the figures envisioned by the plan – which was unveiled in 2015 – look like they won’t reach the expected numbers slated for 2020, the project has slowly been gaining traction over the past two years.
In that timeframe, the corporation has embarked on several engagements with stakeholders and the public to create greater awareness on the feasibility of electric vehicles (EVs) for public and private ownership, with two initiatives spearheading the cause.
The first has been the introduction of its very own charging station network, ChargEV, in 2015. The network, which is meant to provide EV users greater charging convenience, utilises technology developed in partnership with The New Motion, a global leading manufacturer for EV charging systems.
To date, GreenTech Malaysia has installed more than 150 ChargEV stations across the nation with the support from a number of eco-minded premise owners and property developers, and aims to bring that number to around 300 this year.
The corporation is also working in partnership with BMW Group Malaysia and Petronas Dagangan. In the case of the former, as part of the BMW 360 Electric programme, customers with a BMW i or BMW eDrive vehicle are offered the BMW ChargeNow service, with a ChargeNow card allowing customers to enjoy 24/7 support and access to ChargEV’s charger network.
The collaboration with Petronas, meanwhile, will see the deployment of 66 ChargEV charging points at Petronas service stations across the Peninsular. The charger utilised for the application is a three-phase 32A, 400 volt 22 kW unit. GreenTech Malaysia also offers two other ChargEV solutions, a single-phase 16A 3.7 kW AC charger and a single-phase 32A 7.0 kW AC unit.
The other key initiative is of course the Tesla Programme, which was announced in 2015 and effectively began late last year. In early 2016, the Government approved for 100 Teslas to be imported here on a duty-free basis, to be leased to corporate leaders and key influencers to advocate the benefits of EVs.
The programme offers the facelifted Tesla Model S in rear-wheel drive S 70 and all-wheel drive S 90D as well as S P90D forms, though the discontinuation of the S 70 from the Tesla line-up means that it’ll be replaced here by the S 75 in the future, and the P100D should also come in at some point. The base-level S 60 is also being weighed in as a potential offering.
The cars are available via two leasing options, ranging from two to four years. It was announced at the briefing today that to date, the organisation has delivered 17 Teslas, adding to the 114 EVs of other makes currently on Malaysia roads.
Despite the slow progress, GreenTech Malaysia group CEO Ahmad Hadri Haris said the corporation is confident of further expanding the EV network in the coming future.
“After years of advocating, I am pleased to share that we are beginning to see a gradual shift to EVs as these have proven to be a practical solution to pollution while also helping drivers to save cost on fuel and maintenance and providing a green lifestyle option in transportation,” he said.
“During our engagement with industry players and the public, we can definitely see the excitement for EVs in the market. The challenge of course has been the price factor and also to shift Malaysians away from the norm and embrace new technology. Nonetheless, we will continue our role to demonstrate the feasibility of EVs in gaining market acceptance. This is critical in order for us to convince EV manufacturers that Malaysia has the potential to be the regional hub and to encourage them to invest in the country,” he added.
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Malaysia can continue dreaming on being an EVs regional hub if the current Government keep on having the typical Malaysian Toll Plaza of Anything (MTPA) e.g. Only crony company can use it via a selective leasing to ONLY certain entity, super duper multiple taxes on EVERY Malaysian buyer except the few chosen (Excise Duty, Import Duty, GST , Road Tax, also compounded GST on top of other services e.g. Insurances, Leasing and etc etc).
You want to be an EVs regional Hub, the first and foremost crucial thing is, can the local population buy it affordably or not??? If not then why bother. Who in the right don’t want a mode of transport that do not use petroleum fuel and pollute directly but caveat on the source of electricity and use petroleum based fuel which is highly volatile in its price, composition and transportation from refineries to filling station. Guess it will be a typical NAP (National Automotive Policy) thingy, where the hub will be more conducive to either Detroit of Asia , Thailand or next best choice, Indonesia.
Remove Proton then we’ll talk
maybe you should explain your logic behind that first..?
Sendiri Cakap, Sendiri Syok. Nothing done at the end of the day, just like proton hybrid.
Slow progress indeed. With the price of cars in Malaysia so heavily taxed, it’s no wonder progress is slow. Yet we are still beefing about the price of dino fuel to date when other nations are reading out EV brochures.
price reductions do not include imported luxury cars… Oh wait
http://paultan.org/2014/11/21/govt-keep-promise-lowering-imported-car-prices-20-30-next-five-years-miti-deputy/
our normal cars also they prmise 30% reduction and yet we kena tipu
Mr Ahmad, you can dream of making Malaysia an EV hub. Thailand has been chosen by many manufacturers to become the regional EV hub thanks to their fast approval and help from the government. All I can see is you serving the elite in the government and big GLCs
CKD Ioniq, Camry hybrid, 330e, X5 hybrid, C350e, XC90 T8..No??
Those are Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV). Without battery charged, they still can move on with petrols. The challenge that we have is purely Electric Vehicle (EV) that can go beyond 200km. True enough, the EV incentives and taxes can play a big part in driving the EV initiatives plus more EV charging facilities all over in the coming year…
These fellas still syok sendiri, wake up la
Will green tech open the use of its charging stations to other non tesla EV vehicles since the company is concern of the environment and wants to encourage EV usage?
It is open. Mostly used by BMW and Volvo phev now
When will its charging stations be opened for Proton owners?
When Proton will sell their EV model?
with the current taxed structure .. only malaysian’s faces go green!!!
One of the biggest drawback of EV is charging thus will not be surprise if the process of charging is given attention so that time/frequency for charging is reduced.
Meanwhile please do not forget to crackdown on vehicles spewing black smoke into the atmosphere. One of these culprits will negate the good of one hundred “green” vehicles.
So far came across 2 Teslas in PJ already. Hope to see more in the future.
“corporate leaders and key influencers to advocate the benefits of EVs.”
You mean like asking Dato Lee Chong Wei sell off his lambo and drive Tesla? That’s influence
Charging stations are not really the point. If you charge at home, that should last you the entire next days mileage use. The only point of public chargers is for long distance travel, which means semi rural and rural areas for the most part. Chargers in urban areas are mostly a waste and should be allocated to places where outstation travellers stay such as hotels or office work areas where the car is left for most of the day.
The most important, is our gov serious in it?
Malaysia had plan beyond petroleum base or bio-diesel. But our neighbour had move further as EV production hub .
“After years of advocating, I am pleased to share that we are beginning to see a gradual shift to EVs” I wonder where he gets his numbers from. There IS NO SHIFT to EVs. currently, pure EVs are only reserved for a selected few high net worth individuals who are probably in it only because of the novelty. This same individuals probably own several carbon fuel burning cars at home as well. Until we see affordable EV cars on the lower end of the price range for the masses, greentech will only be another money wasting venture.
Yeah agree abt the high net worth individuals.. But wait, I saw Harvinder Singh of this very paultan.org drove around his black Tesla and showing it off in his FB page.. So is Harv is a high net worth individual or he got it just because he works with PT?
syok sendiri
whoever can afford EV in malaysia, couldn’t care less about petrol prices or environment