Tesla received a lot of flak from Malaysians this week after the company reportedly cancelled its plan to build manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia. The Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Tengku Zafrul Aziz has since published a brief video to explain the situation and has pointed out that Tesla has fulfilled some of the requirements that the government has imposed on the company.
What are the requirements that Malaysian government have imposed on Tesla?
Early last year, the Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI) introduced the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) Global Leaders program. Under this program, Tesla was allowed to import its BEVs into Malaysia without obtaining the usual Franchise Approved Permit (AP).
In return, Tesla have to comply to the conditions listed below within three years:
- Establish Head Office, Experience/Sales Center and Service Center in Malaysia
- Deploy at least 50 ultra-fast chargers with charging speed of over 180kW
- Ensure at least 30% of the ultra-fast chargers are open for non-Tesla EVs
- Hire and develop at least 100 local skilled workers
- Ensure that at least 80% of the company’s full-time workforce are Malaysians
- Train at least 5 students from the local higher education institutes or Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centres per year via industrial internship
- Cooperate with at least 10 local higher education institutes or TVET centres for knowledge or skills transfer in the BEV, Battery Management EV System, EV charging or any other related fields
- Cooperate with at least 10 local companies to develop the ecosystem for EV charging and this include using local contractors for charger deployment and equipment supplies
The program also has another requirement that Tesla has to sort out in two years after getting the approval from MITI. By early 2026, the company has to meet up with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and discuss its plans for Malaysia in regards to any of the matters below:
- Vehicle assembly or manufacturing
- EV chargers assembly or manufacturing
- Assembly or manufacturing for critical components
- Battery Reuse, Repair, Recycle, or Remanufacturing (4R) service
- Energy generation and storage technology
Which of these requirements that Tesla have fulfill?
With the establishment of its Malaysian headquarters alongside the first Tesla Experience Centre and Service Centre in Cyberjaya, the company has certainly satisfied the 1st requirement. Furthermore, Tesla has sorted this one out within just a few months after its Malaysian grand launch event.
Tesla has also fulfilled MITI’s 2nd requirement as there are indeed 52 Tesla Superchargers in operation throughout Peninsular Malaysia at the moment. Here’s the breakdown of the locations:
- 4 Superchargers: Tesla Service Centre Cyberjaya, Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Carnival Penang, Sunway Big Box Johor, Majlis Bandaraya Kuantan, IOI Mall Puchong, IOI City Mall Putrajaya, Freeport A’Famosa Melaka
- 6 Superchargers: Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Gamuda Cove
- 8 Superchargers: Pavilion KL
In the video, Tengku Zafrul said that Tesla has also sorted out the 5th requirement as 100% of its workforce here are Malaysians. He also said that Tesla has already fulfilled requirement no. 8 although he didn’t name any of the local companies that are currently collaborating with the American company.
Which MITI requirements that Tesla have not yet fulfilled?
Out of the 9 conditions that the government has imposed on Tesla, 5 of them are still up in the air. Not only that, majority of them including requirement no. 3, 4, 6, and 9 were not addressed by Tengku Zafrul in his new video.
For the condition no. 3 though, the minister previously informed us that Tesla has until 2025 to open up at least 30% of Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs.
As for condition no. 7, Tengku Zafrul covered this in the video by listing the name of higher education institutions that are collaborating with Tesla:
- University of Nottingham Malaysia
- Multimedia University
- Universiti Malaya
- UCSI
- Sunway University
- Universiti Teknologi Petronas
- Despark International College
Since the requirement stated that Tesla need to establish collaboration with at least 10 high education institutions or TVET centres, this means the company need to engage with at least 3 more institutions to satisfy this particular condition.
Meanwhile, condition no. 9 is a little bit tricky since Tesla doesn’t have to address it right now. However, a report from Bernama said that a Tesla representative will be meeting MITI on 22 August to discuss the company’s investment in Malaysia.
The report also said that Tengku Zafrul is planning to release an official statement after the meeting. Perhaps, there might be some changes in the horizon, so let’s see what is the outcome of the meeting going to be.
