Will there be enough EV charging stations in Malaysia by 2025?

This is the target set by many and seems more like a dream than reality.

 Yes, the chatter about electric vehicles and the driving excitement continues with new owners and the enthusiasts who still cannot afford to buy their dream electric car or the many who are still waiting for the stock to arrive as the computer chip shortage has extended the waiting time for most electric vehicles on sale in Malaysia right now.

Even before the Malaysian government decided to remove the import duties on brand new electric cars, there were many promises by different government agencies to put up electric vehicle charging stations at public car parks, shopping malls and even government buildings.

As far back as 2015 when BMW Malaysia launched the i8 coupe for RM 1,188.00 the company started working with Greentech Malaysia to provide public charging stations and they had a number of expensive launch events and press conferences to promote this movement.

At the time, they made a bold promise to have 25,000 ChargeEV stations around the country by the year 2020. We are now at the middle of 2022 and not even 5 percent of that has materialised. Also, most of the current EV charging stations in shopping malls and hotels have been installed by Mercedes-Benz Malaysia and BMW Malaysia for the plug-in hybrid customers initially and now for the new electric car customers.

For the past 4 years we have not heard any ‘noise’ or news from Greentech Malaysia and it seems that all the previous promises were just a ‘chest banging’ exercise.  

Then in August last year (2021) the Malaysian reconditioned car importers managed to persuade the government to provide them with NEW electric car import permits and so they are now bringing in hundreds of Tesla’s. With this move they have partnered with MAAri to install 1,000 DC rapid charging stations around the country by 2025. This move comes simply because all the various reconditioned sellers will need to have DC charging stations at the various showrooms in order to sell brand new Tesla electric cars.

 Plus, they need to provide confidence to their Tesla buyers that there will be adequate charging points for them to travel interstate without worrying about battery range.

 So far the installation of these chargers have been slow as the cost is not cheap (it is rumoured to be between (RM 100,000 and as high as RM 200,000) per rapid DC charging point.

 The return on investment is very low and at the moment those with working DC chargers at their car showrooms are offering FREE charging which is cost to them.

 This all points to even the basic target of 1,000 DC charging points by 2025 will not happen, not even 50 percent even with the current high interest in electric cars.  

Also read: Let’s get to know the EV world better word-by-word: Common terms & jargons