Earlier this week, prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri invited Tesla to look at Malaysia as a production hub for its EVs. While it remains to be seen if anything will actually come out of this, the American carmaker has indicated it is open to looking at having an official presence here, albeit not on a vehicular-related level.
The angle being pursued is that of infrastructure development, according to Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) CEO Arham Abdul Rahman. In a tweet, he said he met Hasan Nazar, Tesla’s head of federal policy, in Washington to get a better idea of the company’s perspective and plans for expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
Reportedly, the company’s immediate interest is to set up fast charging stations in Malaysia, and it was willing to discuss further on this matter, Arham said in his tweet. He added that this is “in line with the market entry strategy as fast charging has been an area of concern within the EV ecosystem.”
The establishment of a Supercharger network would not just increase the number of DC fast charging points in the country, but also extend Tesla’s ability to provide its users in Singapore, where it is officially present, with access to rapid charging beyond the island republic. Users will of course have to pay for charging from the network, should it make its way here.
Superchargers are available in Singapore, with the first V3 units – with CCS connectors – being installed last year. Capable of providing up to 250 kW of power, the unit slashes the average charging time down to just 15 minutes. At present, Tesla’s charging network consists of over 25,000 chargers at more than 2,700 locations around the world.
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Indirectly saying our infrastructure at the moment is shit and needs urgent improvements before they can even start thinking of coming into Malaysia
Why see it with an unnecessarily negative light? There is nothing more to it. We don’t have superchargers, Tesla is willing to invest to set a few up. They want more presence int he region, we want superchargers. Win-win.
We must be careful dealing with this guy. He just scammed the whole of Indonesia and rather buy an online company than invest money into real things. He also burned way too many investors for the many umpteen years of massive losses that would have closed him down long ago if it weren’t for the subsidies he gets from the US Government.
where does spaceX fund derived from?
US taxpayers, if he had relied only on tesla he wouldnt be one of the most richest on the planet, or rather he probably be bankrupt
Again, unnecessary negativity. There was no scam. Both just wanted different things. Tesla wants to make batteries for the grid (the Megapack), while Indonesia wants to make EV batteries. Tesla has recently announced the switch to LFP chemistry for the Megapack, which does not use cobalt or nickel – two of the minerals they are “selling” to makers of EV batteries.
Dont gobble up every word from Elon Must …beware…
A wise Guru once said,” Wolves in sheep clothing”
Really? I can say the same for you & ur trollkind.
Copy paste: “Excellent example of simply typing a comment by plucking info from thin air.”
this is weird news. was this hasan guy the only people willing to meet mida? federal policy sounds like US govt liason guy. what has he gotta do with supercharger networks in southeast asia?
I heard ‘ka-ching2’ from here…
Ini kelakar. By setting up the superchargers in our country , it will only benefit Singaporean Tesla owners and prospective owners. It will just add another selling point for them.
Tesla need to come as package both the superchargers and vehicle for Malaysia. If not tak payah lah… Buang masa.
Which comes first, chicken or egg? Without charging network, how will we push for more EV? If Tesla could come and setup superchargers at their own cost it will benefit us all, Msians, SGians, Thais.
Tu la just how many Malaysian can afford tesla car
Tesla is opening up their supercharger networks for non-Tesla users. They first tried it out in the Netherlands in limited locations. Now the trials have expanded to France and Norway.
One of the pressing issues about the state of power generation here in Malaysia is still it’s overall dependency on fossil fuel electric power plants. Although blessed with abundant sunshine almost year round, the adoption to renewable energy sources is at best still a long crawl compared to other nations committed to the reduction of CO2 emissions. So when you factor in the CO2 cost of energy conversion, EVs are actually not as environmentally friendly as we imagine them to be, at least not in Malaysia yet.
More than half of the US is still dependent on fossil fuel for electricity generation. West Virginia is the worst US state for non-renewable power generation (5% renewable, Malaysia is currently 23%) and even there EV will have lower emissions than ICE (220 CO2 g/mi vs 410 g/mi for ICE), taking into account CO2 of generated electricity needed for charging. In California (59% renewable) that figure goes down to 100 g/mi.
ICE emissions is always higher and even worse it goes straight into our urban areas.
I do however agree that EV is not ready from prime time mass adoption, especially for single car families in MY. Too expensive and too little charging infrastructure for those without home charging. Owners now will pay a high price in depreciation but we (yes I have an EV) are the egg that will hatch the chicken (charging network) for late adopters.
This is all waste of time and money travel all the way there to meet him to get them invest super charger here. ABB and other companies are here making EV charger already why must be Tesla ? Glamour…ke
Some negative sentiments here.
Fact is that TESLA charges less per KwH than non-Tesla charging stations. The price differences are mostly 50% more expensive and in some cases, more than double the Tesla Prices.
Why would you not want that?
Sure – Singaporeans will benefit the first, but those Singaporeans will bring money with them to spend the weekends in Malaysia. That has been missing for 2 years now. And these Tesla drivers are not the poorest of Singaporeans either.
Electricity is the future. Why not be happy about a future that can be so much better?
In the end, we ALL will drive electric cars. That time will come in the next 10~15 years.