PLAN Malaysia, an agency under the Ministry of Local Government Development (KPKT) are currently developing guidelines for EV charger parking in Malaysia.
A draft of the guidelines is currently published on Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC)’s Unified Public Consultation (UPC) website for public feedback. The guidelines reveals a couple of interesting facts that could completely change the EV charging landscape in Malaysia.
Two big things stand out in the document – the disallowance of EV charging parking lots in basement parking, and the disallowance of the same in individual parking lots in strata unit parking.
Both appear to be driven by requirements by the fire and rescue department (JBPM) for access of firefighting vehicles to the EV charger parking due to fears of electric car fires occurring during charging.
For public charging, the proposed guidelines say you can only build EV charger parking at ground level. Basement chargers will not be allowed, so this raises questions on what’s going to happen to chargers like Gentari’s Suria KLCC chargers. It appears the only non-ground level charging in malls that will be allowed are open air rooftop levels.
For strata property chargers, this will cause a big issue with condo dwellers. Chargers at individual parking lots will no longer be allowed. Instead, the proposed guidelines say EV chargers in condos can only be built at visitor parking with easy access by the fire and rescue department.
We previously wrote that a ‘right to charge’ law should be implemented in Malaysia to ease the process of individuals living in condos wanting to install charging equipment at their own condo parking. It appears that with these proposed guidelines, KPKT is going the opposite direction, wanting to ban it altogether.
The deadline for submitting feedback for this proposal is tomorrow. Click here to visit the MPC UPC page for the proposed guidelines.
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Going green not easy these days!
People who think EV’s are for poorer demographic, not true lol.
This is one glaring example, want to own an EV and charge at home? buy a landed house first haha
Previously we were heading in the right direction under Azminkor but now with new Gomen we are heading to the sewer to play with their rats. Malaysia wasted the chance. Sigh..
How is this done in other countries? Do they ban groundlevel EV chargers too? If not how do they deal with potential fire?
So,the moral of the latest development on EV charging…dont splash your covidian dollars on Evs only to find out the authorities have many restrictions,contrary to earlier expectations.
Until they r solidly firm on the charging infra guidelines..just buy your favourite ice car at the moment.
Why the need to rush to enrich Elon Musk or BYD when charging infra are still not at optimum capacity and easy access.
Other countries forbid the charging and sometimes even parking of EV’s at basement level too.
which countries are these?
European Union with 500 million citizens.
Haha, I will stick to my ICE cars. Hydrogen car all the way!
Same for me. BEV is not the future. Hydrogen makes so much more sense than the battery as the hydrogen element itself never runs out. Also, unlike BEV where you have to wait for a long time to get the battery fully charged, you fill up hydrogen just like a normal petrol or diesel car. It’s a complete no brainer, really.
1. Hydrogen too pricey, in US is around RM360 per tank for 600km
2. just a hydrogen pump , cost 2 million USD to build (petrol pump at 300k usd , and electric charging station at 50k usd) *not to say hydrogen truck , hydrogen storage .
3. lack of convenience of hydrogen station even in US now , there’s only 40 hydrogen station in US .
4. performance – 170km max for toyota mirai , 0-100km at 9.1 second . not awful but not too great .
EV charges and EV cars pose no more a fire risk than current ICE cars. There is a fail safe cut off for electrical systems which is much safer than cars using petroleum, diesel, etc. Did someone try to educate KPKT first?
it may have same risk level or even lower risk, but i think the concerns here is ICE refill station always in open area with access for the firefighters vehicle. not in some parking lot in the middle of a building.
Later ah your car charge at home then one day a Electricity Bill cost very high rather choose gas Powered car
Search youtube for “Tesla start burning”. Then you possibly will change your mind about “lower risk”.
have to search for Tesla burning? /s
I witnessed many ICE car burning.
Never mind Tesla, Richard Hammond’s Rimac Concept One crash in The Grand Tour is already enough to show the bigger problem with BEV.
You should read more about the battery fire . It’s a very big concern worldwide. Unfortunately the Fire risk is very much higher for EV vehicle. Putting out EV car fire is very difficult and dangerous. Also the toxic smoke and also the contaminated water is very toxic.
So how the fire department deals with normal cars caught on fire in basement? I know it is relatively rare but if fire happens, how do they operate?
They go there with a motorbike and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher. Unfortunately, a motorbike cannot carry 1000l of water that are needed to cool an EV battery.
The sprinklers will do the job if the car catches fire. It’s the smoke rather than the actual fire that we should be worried about in a basement fire.
The problem lies in the fire threat level of a lithium battery thermal runaway that goes beyond 1000 deg in which requires more than 10k gallons of water to put off, totally on a different level of fire threat of an ICE. Wouldnt blame the public for having the lack of knowledge, but EV owners should go equip themselves with at least level 1 handling high voltage vehicle awareness.
LOL our country is such a joke. This ass backwards move will further deter EV adoption as most city dwellers live in condos, and they’re arguably the target audience for EVs since EVs excel in city driving scenarios.
It is not backwards cos EV is not the future ;)
I agree with Thed and have an EV in Southern Thailand where small towns like Songkla, Krabi etc have better EV charging infra than say Subang. We are backside behind in this region. Maybe invite Singapore teach us. Most car producers worth their salt are electrifying and it’s sad we are so behind
Singapore shall teach what? How to extinguish a burning EV in a basement?
Have you tried looking for ICE cars on fire too? Or just an avid EV hater?
ICE cars won’t catch fire 48hrs after a crash test. As it happened with BYD.
PS: Are you just a EV fetishist?
I’m sure Bomba has a rationale regarding how they will have to stop a burning EV, a fire caused by batteries are far worse and harder to put out than say, fire from petrol or combustible materials. an intense fire within a building can affect its structure. Bomba and KPKT will have to find some middle ground so that public convenience and safety can coexist. sometimes we normal folks dont understand what needs to be done in such a situation because we only have our own POV to judge, so before you keyboard warriors train your guns at them, this is just a draft.
Agree, the Malaysia bomba authority is still living in the stone age and old times
They veto high level parking area without the need for fire sprinkler previously only needed at basement area
Now with the advance of technology , bomba authority with the old guards still having mindset of stone age without adopting to ever new changing world . They only adopt with increase in salary and perks in mind always .
The bomba authority need to enforce again is the compulsory installation of additional high pressure fast flowing fire sprinklers.
Secondly, for basement parking , enforcement of more bomba main gate valve installations surroundings the building or with one or two more inside the building corners or centres for new buildings to help alleviate incident of fire
There are many innovative ideas and solution the director and engineers of bomba Malaysia can brain Strom to come up instead of just executing their duties and getting and complaining about salaries
After all Malaysia always wants the whole world to be recognised herself as first in this and that ? Is bomba Malaysia going to one that Malaysian can be proud or it is just maintaining to be a followers of others always .?
U totally missed the point and agreeing to a totally reverse point of view dude. The above comments are agreeing with the bomba standards, and believed me they are consistent with EU standards. Whereas u are condemning the Bomba, and where do u think Bomba learned n followed the guidelines from if not from EU? Go read and travel before making a joke of a comment and criticizing noble professions by being a keyboard warrior. Seriously Malaysians do read and have a proper knowledge on the hazards of a lithium fire before making stupid remarks!
ev terbakar padam guna air mehh
I will stick to hybrid until there is new charging technology that can achieve 100% charge less than 2 minute
Stop using mobile also la… since no mobile can also charge that fast…
People compare car vs car, u so genius compare car and iphone
Good move by Gomen.
You can say EVs are safe and whatever…
The fact is not the vehicle being a fire risk but EVs can be a hella good fire fuel and explosion risk.
That’s why firefighters usually leave EVs to burnt without even trying to save it due to explosion risk involved.
The move to EVs should be taken on a holistic approach not with a patch it up strategy. One hand, you incentivise Malaysians to move to EVs but sadly our EV charging infrastructures are barely ready. As we all know today, even the policies governing the installations of charging infrastructures are not ready.
I wrote this on another article (the Indonesia EV subsidy post). Battery swap solves *everything*
I especially look forward to battery swapping that solves all the perceived problems in a single swoop. Off grid charging, charging times (takes <5 mins), battery tech being obsolete (you don't own the battery or *one* battery, battery degradation (self explanatory) and high initial purchase price (Battery as a service or subscription based model). You can still charge the battery yourself.
Battery swap for motorcycle – yes
Battery swap for a car – a big no no at the moment
Too heavy and bulky and the process is a pain to do
Battery swap has been in use in China for quite a few years already. NIO performs one battery swap in China every 2.8 seconds and has done more than 10 million (2022 data).
So strata condos can just reorganize their parking w slots for ev owners at ground level
Wow, all the new owners of EV staying in Condo gonna be unhappy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicle_fire_incidents
Excrepts from Wiki article on EVs catching fire.
BYD Han EV
In July 2021, Dongchedi (Chinese: 懂车帝), a ByteDance’s automotive media in China, performed a crash test of BYD Han EV versus Arcfox Alpha-S. Having been parked for 48 hours after the test, only the Han EV caught fire and burned to the ground.[61][62][63]
On June 15, 2022, a BYD Han EV caught fire on a road in Xaysetha district, Vientiane, Laos.[64][65]
BYD Tang
On November 15, 2021, a BYD Tang EV caught fire in a workshop in Kristiansand, Norway.[66]
On January 26, 2022, a BYD Tang DM-i (plug-in hybrid) caught fire on a flatbed tow truck, on a road in mainland China. By the such kind of transporting, it seems to be a malfunctioning car.[67]
BYD Qin
On May 28, 2020, a BYD Qin Pro EV caught fire at a charging station in Shenzhen, China.[68]
On October 28, 2020, a BYD Qin Pro EV caught fire after charging completed in Yantai, Shandong province, China.[69]
On November 22, 2021, a BYD Qin Pro EV caught fire in an underground parking lot in Beijing, China.[70][71][72]
On February 13, 2022, a BYD Qin Plus DM-i (plug-in hybrid) caught fire on a road in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province, China.[71][72]
don’t worry la… KPKT will u-turn later. just be patient and wait for them to u-turn.
In Singapore EV owners are not even allowed to charge EV battery in a landed battery.
First, every disappointed with this development as the government should let everyone know that EV is not really encourage so we not waste our money buying EV and then find out we cannot charge our EV. Secondly, do we have to reinvent the wheel every time or could we learn from other countries? What did the other countries do? did all the other countries banned EV charging in basement? I thought flip-flopping was the habit of the old government but seemed this new government has the same habit. Really disappointing.
This is not unexpected, coming from the fire department – make things tough, then Malaysia Boleh
Expected, coming from the fire department – make things tough, barulah bolehland
Expected from JBPM- make tougher rules, release after bincang