TNBX has deployed TNB Electron DC chargers in several Aeon Mall branches at Perak and Kelantan. The subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad revealed this in a presentation during last weekend’s EVX 2024.
The list includes Taiping, Seri Manjung, Kinta City, and Kota Bharu but the Charge Point Operator (CPO) cannot pinpoint the exact launch date for these chargers. We were told that TNBX is still waiting for approvals from authorities before they can become operational.
Similar setup to TNB Electron Aeon Big Wangsa Maju
Interestingly enough, all these four new locations have a similar setup in the form of an Autel DC40 MaxiCharger DC Compact charger with two CCS2 connectors that can deliver a maximum charging speed of 47kW each. The CPO has previously deployed the same charger at Aeon Big Wangsa Maju which has been operational since March this year.
In terms of charging fees, it currently costs RM1.35 per kWh to utilise the TNB Electron charger at the Aeon Big Wangsa Maju. Since all four chargers are not yet operational, the actual charging fee has not yet been revealed by TNBX.
TNB Electron is moving to per kWh pricing
Speaking about charging, TNBX has also announced that it will be moving away from per-minute to per-kWh pricing. However, the company did not reveal when exactly the migration will be completed.
In general, EVs with faster charging speed would benefit more from per-minute pricing since their battery can be charged much faster and this means less time spent at a charger. With the per-kWh pricing policy, the charging fee will be based on the amount of energy that the EV draws from the charger which is the fairer approach.
Let’s take this simple scenario as an example: imagine two EVs have stopped by at a DC charger to top up their batteries with 40kWh of power. However, EV A’s charging time was only 20 minutes as opposed to EV B which took 40 minutes.
If the DC charger’s fee is RM2.20 per minute, that means the owner of EV A only has to pay RM44 for this particular charging session as opposed to EV B’s owner which have to fork out RM88. If you switch it to RM2.20 per kWh, then both EVs have to pay RM88 for their charging session at the said DC charger since they obtain the same amount of energy.
Of course, the example above has been oversimplified. In real life, the per minute and per kWh price structures are usually different.
Case in point: most of the EV chargers operated by TNBX have a per-minute pricing policy. Only a handful has a per-kWh pricing such as TNB Electron Aeon Big Wangsa Maju which has been set at RM1.35 per kWh as mentioned earlier while TNB Electron Juru Setia Sentral’s charging fee is RM1.50 per kWh.
As a comparison, the TNB Electron DC chargers in Ayer Keroh R&R Northbound and Paka R&R Northbound are currently priced at RM2.20 per minute. As for R&R Tapah Northbound, the 80kW charger costs RM2.05 per minute while the 100kW charger goes for RM2.35 per minute.
