The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has previously prohibited ICE vehicle to EV conversion. However, things may have finally changed after the department has recently published a new guideline that addresses such conversion.
First highlighted by local automotive portal Careta, the guideline is readily available for download on JPJ’s website. While the new guideline is great news for those who are looking to extend the longevity of their classic vehicle via EV technology, it does not mean you can simply shove an electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack from Neta V into a Perodua Axia and call it a day.
While EV is mechanically less complex than ICE, the same can’t be said for legal requirements and compliance.
Can my car be converted to an EV in Malaysia?
Officially called the Guideline for the Modification of Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV) to Electric Vehicles (EV), the document said that you can only perform the EV conversion on a vehicle that has been registered in Malaysia.
This means you can’t buy a Toyota AE86 shell from Alibaba, turn it into an EV, and make it road-legal. You need to use an actual, road-going AE86 that has already been registered in Malaysia for your EV conversion project.
However, the new guideline does not apply to off-road vehicles and R&D prototypes.
The path looks simple, but the journey is not
Located on page 18 of the guideline, the flowchart above generally summarises the journey that you will go through to make your EV conversion project road-legal.
Things look quite straightforward based on this chart:
- Submit a detailed plan of your EV conversion project to JPJ
- Go through consultation sessions with JPJ and its Technical Service agencies
- Once approved, implement your EV conversion
- Once completed, bring your converted EV for testing and verification with the appointed Technical Service agencies
- If everything goes well, send all the necessary documentation to JPJ for final approval
- Congratulations, your EV conversion is now road-legal
But once you look deeper into the 22-page guideline, things are not that easy.
The EV conversion can only be done by a JPJ-certified workshop
Welcome to the first hurdle: the conversion has to be done by a JPJ-certified ICEV to EV Modification Workshop according to provisions 5.3.1 and 5.3.2 of the guideline. In other words, the workshop has to be assessed and verified by JPJ before they can work on your EV conversion project.
The workshop needs to meet a long list of requirements in order to become a JPJ-certified workshop according to Appendix 5 of the guideline:
You need skilled manpower to work on the EV conversion
It is also not just about having a suitable and proper physical location, but also skilled and knowledgeable manpower. As pointed out in the appendix as well as provision 5.3.3 of the guideline, certain high-voltage works performed during the EV conversion can only be done by technicians with at least Malaysia Skills Certificate (SKM) Level 3: Electric & Hybrid Car Servicing or equivalent.
The conversion also has to be supervised by those with at least a Diploma in Electrical Engineering or equivalent, according to provision 5.3.4.
The EV conversion must be endorsed by a professional engineer
Another sign that JPJ is taking this EV conversion thing seriously is that your project must be endorsed by a professional engineer. This includes the engineering report that guarantees the safety aspect and structural integrity of the vehicle chassis.
Now, it is not clear to me whether any professional automotive engineer can endorse your project. But JPJ does have its own list of certified professional engineers.
Upgraded suspension and axle alongside additional HV safety features
Under provision 5.2.4, you have to upgrade or modify the vehicle’s suspension and axle to make sure that it can support the additional weight caused by the conversion. You also have to implement a High Voltage Cut-Off System into the vehicle with at least TWO cut-off points that are accessible during maintenance or emergency.
In addition to that, you also have to come out with an Emergency Response Guide as well as implement safety labels to provide information regarding the vehicle’s high voltage nature to emergency first responders and the public.
The EV conversion has to meet UN, ISO, IEC, and SAE standards
Meanwhile, it is not enough that your newly converted EV doesn’t fall apart when you go through speed bumps and potholes on our roads. There is also a long list of international standards and regulations that it needs to meet, especially since Malaysia has been a member of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) since early 2006.
This is where JPJ-appointed Technical Service agencies that I mentioned earlier come into the picture. There are 5 of them at the moment, according to a late-Nov VTA presentation by JPJ that I found through Japan Automobile Standards Internalization Centre (JASIC):
While the initial assessment on the Conceptual Modification Design focused a lot on technical specifications and diagrams, as well as documentations listed in Appendix 4, your vehicle ultimately needs to pass all the items listed in Appendix 3 to be road legal. I can imagine the cost to test and verify your EV conversion project with the Technical Service agencies is not going to be cheap.
TLDR: This is not your weekend project car
If it is not clear by now, let me put it this way: you can’t treat the EV conversion project like a typical weekend on-off project car.
The requirement list is long, and it involves so many things: location, manpower, documentation, initial assessment, and post-conversion testing. There is a long list of international standards that it has to meet before the converted vehicle is certified road legal by JPJ.
While one of the guidelines’ objectives is to support Malaysia’s sustainability agenda, it also insists that the conversion must be done without compromising road and vehicle safety. If you are serious about making your EV conversion project road legal, be prepared to invest a lot of time and financial resources in it.
Sourcing the parts and battery is most probably the easiest part of the project.
