A long time coming, Langkawi now finally has a DC fast charging facility for electric vehicles. Deployed by EVGuru, the new charger is located at the Langkawi Port in Tanjung Lembung.
The location of the charger is rather strategic as this is where the island’s car ferry service operates. Hence, you can conveniently charge your EV regardless of whether you are just fresh off the roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ship into the island or about to bring your EV back to the mainland.
In terms of capability, the DC charger can deliver up to 40kW through its two CCS2 nozzle. While it was not explicitly mentioned in Langkawi Port’s announcement, the charger seems to come with dynamic power sharing capability.
This is because the EVGuru has listed two charging fees in its mobile app. If customers charged their EV at the full 40kW rate, then they have to pay RM60 per hour but the fee would then be reduced to RM30 per hour if they are charging at 20kW.
However, the company did not clarify in the app how much customers have to pay if they charge their EV for less than an hour. When we reached out to EVGuru to find out the charger’s pricing if you just need a quick 20 to 30-minute top up, only then we were told that the charging fee is actually based on the user’s consumption and by the time they spent plugging to the charger.
Specifically, the actual fee is RM1.50 per kWh. For some unknown reason, the EVGuru app is not able to display the charging fee in that manner.
While Langkawi Port might have the first public DC charger on the island, it is not the first of its kind on the island. Before this, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) and Tenaga Nasional (TNB) had already installed several DC chargers at the MARA Liner Langkawi’s bus depot.
The agency has planned to open these chargers to the public but nothing has happened so far. MARA Liner is currently operating an electric bus service for the Kuah and Padang Matsirat route using a SKSbus LEC-300EV which will soon be joined by two Hino Poncho Z EV buses.
Meanwhile, EVGuru has also deployed a 22kW AC charger at Langkawi Port. Just like the DC charger, it can be activated using the EVGuru mobile app although the charging fee is slightly lower at RM1.00 per kWh.
