The price of oil is high, so should the government and cabinet ministers set an example in cost-cutting and use electric vehicles as their official cars? This question was posed to Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani at the Concorde Club dialogue session at Wisma Bernama yesterday.
The MITI minister said that he and his colleagues can do so, but such a move must be supported by widespread public charging infrastructure nationwide, citing the example of petrol stations.
“We need the public infrastructure. Where are you getting the public chargers? They must be available throughout the country, just like petrol stations. Only then will people feel comfortable using EVs,” he said, reported by The Star.
“But if you do not provide the infrastructure, it will fail, even if you give a low price. It may be construed that everything is already taken care of by the government, and when they experience some problems, they will come back to the government and ask why the government allowed this. My stand on this issue actually is – let’s build the infrastructure together,” he added.
Johari lamented that charging infrastructure isn’t widespread in rural areas. “From 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, those who brought in CBU EV cars enjoyed zero import duty, zero excise duty, and zero sales tax. That is how the government created a window for four years.
“Unfortunately, within those four years, we have not seen widely available infrastructure development, especially in rural areas, kampung areas and so on. Within this period, we have forgone about RM3.3 billion in tax revenue,” he said, adding that Malaysia is now focusing on strengthening its EV ecosystem, including encouraging CKD local assembly operations.
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“Unfortunately, within those four years, we have not seen widely available infrastructure development, especially in rural areas, kampung areas and so on.” Yeah, I wonder how those kampung people driving around in BMW iX charge their cars.
more like patching up own poor decision after BYD say “no”
Collecting votes for a “bad status” is just a hollow show,
Without real action, there’s nowhere for us to go.
Stop the talk of struggle just to win a crowd’s grace,
And start the real work at a much faster pace.
He needs to put the Paris Agreement right at the core,
And open up Malaysia’s capability door.
Don’t just chase the numbers or a political gain,
Fast-forward our progress and break through the chain.
Why not enough public chargers? Because not enough EV sold and charger companies afraid of investing large amount of money. Why not enough EV sold in Malaysia? Because MITI cakap jangan… There you go, you got your answer right within your own ministry.
How much do you really save for this conversion?! so do you just sell all those petrol car right away to take back watever value it left? if yes, then good, maybe… who knows… cut losses that is never should have been happen at all for this time period. So you decide then u guys should swap to EV, so u save all the WFH jokes money and top-up using tax payer money to buy all this brand new ev! what a genius!
So that day, the so call good news on saving how many peanuts from WFH u guys gain, now u guys spending millions to save energy! GENIUS!
bla bla bla minister. have you resolved the BYD investment issue amicably?
BS the redtape faced by CPOs is what stops many new charging points from even coming online. It comes back to the incompetence at gomen lower levels. Something his ministry can look to fixing.
Wtf am I reading here? Is he blind? What with that lame excuses? He really has an IQ of a room temperature. People is more than ready ffs. If people not buying, manufacturers won’t bother setting up factories. But he’s the one blocking it. B40 M40 is the majority but he wanna sell EV for more than RM150k while waiting years for P1 P2 Playing catch up? DID HE NOT SEE THE IRONY OF HE HIMSELF BEING THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO EV ADOPTION? Please get someone else to replace him.
who he was asking when he said you? the G should make the policy not simply asking for a more public charger
So basically he’s saying the answer is “NO”.
Such hypocritics.
Orang tanya A, dia jawap Z. So still expect the minister be the role model to adopt EV, solved EV issue, propel Malaysia to modern, clean environment friendly country?
First of all it will never be widely support because when the government set ridiculous policy like min. price for EV sold in the country or even when BYD can only manufacture Rm200k EVs in the country what does it portray > that rich people drives EV and poor people drives engine? Not to mention the special ex-minister who stated APs are needed in the country because it can ensure cars sold here are safe.
Think about it Tesla / BYD started production of EVs since 2009 now its 2026 and up till today also no solution to the public charges as all its being monopolised and given to cronies as practiced for decades before just like car business.
After you bebel so much, so what’s the conclusion? Is it the government‘a failure or what? As usual no proper planning up front right?
YB Menteri, sepatutnya YB kenalah rajinlah bertanya kenapa chargers kurang. YB tanya dengan pemegang taruh, dari majlis bandaran, TNB dan agensi berkaitan.
Banyak syarikat nak pasang public chargers tapi proses bureaucratic menjadikan pemasangan jadi payah dan lambat.
Rajin-rajin buat kerja lapangan YB, jangan asyik dengar cakap pegawai Miti yang malas turun ke lapangan. YB dengar keluhan rakyat, syarikat installer chargers. YB Menteri Umno jangan malas. Nanti PRU orang tak vote. Jadilah rajin macam YB Umno Azalina.
Nismilan
No wonder the BYD project kaput.
If the menteri is so worried about EV infra,then why get BYD to invest here? Hello,why so negative?
I m 101 percent sure if PMX mandate EVs for menteris,Putrajaya will get enough charges.They just have to get prior planning done ,for road trips.
How about disposiong all the luxury MPVs or Camrys.
Just give each menteri an Emas 7,range 410 km.Buy national.Support Proton.
Walk the talk,our tax funded menteris.
Only Tesla install charger? What about other brand that sell better than Tesla, are they investing in charging network?
di kawasan parlimen ada berapa ya EV charger?
With RM4 billion, Malaysia could build between 40,000 and 160,000 EV chargers, depending on the charger type and installation complexity.
That’s the real scale of what RM4 billion can do.
Bang Johari, MITI under your leadership can’t even decide on the CKD EV pricing.
Empty cans do indeed make the loudest noise.