Malaysia to kill off NGVs in 2025 due to safety concerns

Malaysia will ban natural gas vehicles (NGVs) on 30 June 2025. Subsequently, no new natural gas vehicles (NGV) will be allowed to be registered in Malaysia starting from 1 July 2025, according to the Transport Minister, Anthony Loke.

A typical NGV tank can only last 15 years

This was done due to safety concerns as a typical NGV tank has a safe period of 15 years, says the minister. Considering that the peak period for the modification and installation of NGV kits peaked between 1995 and 2014, the tanks on NGVs in Malaysia have most probably reached their end-of-life period.

Anthony also pointed out that NGV spare parts especially tanks are already hard to come by in Malaysia and this has resulted in hefty repair costs. Hence, some NGV owners have resorted to old parts from used tanks. Some of them have even installed modified liquified petroleum gas (LPG) tanks on their vehicles instead of proper NGV tanks which increased the risk of accidents.

In addition to that, the number of active NGVs in Malaysia is already quite low. The minister said that there are only 44,383 registered NGVs for the past 3 years which is equivalent to just 0.2% of the total number of vehicles in Malaysia not inclusive of motorcycles.

Petronas offers assistance to existing NGV owners and taxi drivers

Anthony has also revealed that Petronas NGV already stopped offering NGV to consumers. This is being done in phases with the full termination to take place on 1 July 2025.

In conjunction with today’s announcement, Petronas NGV has unveiled the Transition Assistance Programme for NGV Vehicles. This initiative is meant to help NGV taxi drivers as well as NGV owners who are planning to continue using their NGV as a petrol vehicle or offload their mono-fuel NGV altogether.

Under this programme, NGV taxi drivers will receive a one-off e-voucher worth RM3,000 through Setel. On the other hand, duel-fuel NGV owners can have the NGV kits from their vehicles removed for free at an authorised workshop via this programme.

As for those who have monofuel NGVs, their vehicles will be assessed by an independent evaluator before being disposed of at an Authorised Automotive Treatment Facility. The payment will be made to their bank account within 3 to 7 working days after the post-disposal paperwork is completed.

Petronas NGV pumps have been converted into EV charging stations

Given today’s announcement, what is going to happen to the NGV pumps then? While we don’t know what Petronas has in store for them, we do know that some of these pumps will likely be converted into EV charging stations.

In fact, this has been implemented in two locations. One such premise is the Petronas Mesra Mall in Kerteh, Terengganu whereby the NGV refuelling areas now have four EV fast charging bays with a maximum power output of 150kW.

Several NGV pumps at the Petronas KLIA 2 station in Sepang have also been removed to give way to a 240kW DC charger that can simultaneously support up to 4 EVs. That being said, NGV owners can still refuel their vehicles at this station for the time being.