The government is now considering having more DC fast chargers (DCFCs) in the electric vehicle charging infrastructure mix. This was revealed by the Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Liew Chin Tong at the Parliament recently.
Reevaluating the national EV charging infrastructure mix
Liew said that the current target of having 10,000 EV charge points in Malaysia by 2025 consisted of 9,000 spots with AC chargers while the remaining 1,000 chargers are made of DCFCs. The government has since felt that it should put less emphasis on AC chargers since Malaysia has a lot of landed properties.
He added that having more DCFCs can help reduce range anxiety which in hand will allow more people to utilise EVs for long-distance journeys. While the matter has been brought to the attention of the National EV Steering Committee, a study will soon be conducted on whether the DCFC target should be increased.
The government does not “provide” EV chargers to the public
This may sound like nitpicking but Liew may have given the impression that the government is providing EV chargers to the public since he said “menghasilkan 10,000 pengecas EV” in his speech.
As far as we know, the government is not directly involved in the national EV charging infrastructure. While it is true that the ChargEV charging network was originally a government initiative under the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation (MGTC), Yinson GreenTech took over the operation in early 2022.
In fact, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has previously said the construction of EV charging stations is being led by the private sector. He also said that the government does not provide any allocations or exclusive rights for EV charging stations.
All in all, the government is aiming to have 10,000 chargers in Malaysia by 2025 but the responsibility to achieve the target is mainly on the shoulders of the charging point operators (CPOs). We are certainly still far behind the target as there are only 2,020 chargers throughout Malaysia according to the Malaysia EV Charging Network (MEVnet) dashboard, as of 19 January 2024.
Meanwhile, bureaucracy could also be the reason behind the slow rate of charger deployment. We have seen instances such as in Mid Valley Megamall and Pavilion Bukit Jalil whereby the chargers were only made available to users months after they were installed.
In addition to that, we have also been told that the EV Charging System (EVCS) approval process by the Energy Commission (ST) may take between 2 to 6 months depending on the quality of the submission. ST recently said that it has since reduced the application process to just 30 days but it did point out that there are other approvals that CPOs may need to obtain including from local government authorities and site owners.
