Malaysia recorded an all-time high of 8,833 electric vehicle (EV) registrations in August 2026, according to the latest vehicle registration data from the Road Transport Department (JPJ).
That is a 155.2% increase year-on-year from 3,461 EVs registered in August 2025, and it surpasses the previous monthly record of 8,123 EV registrations in December 2025.
What makes the growth more notable is that it comes against a softer overall automotive market. Malaysia’s total vehicle registrations declined 2.15% year-on-year from 78,970 units in August 2025, while EV registrations more than doubled over the same period.
EVs account for 11% of total industry volume in August 2026
In total, Malaysia recorded 77,276 new vehicle registrations in August 2026, which is a 2.15% decline year-on-year from 78,970 units in August 2025.
Despite the decline in overall Total Industry Volume (TIV), EV registrations surged from 3,461 units to 8,833 units, representing a 155.22% year-on-year increase. As a result, EVs accounted for 11.43% of all new vehicle registrations during the month.
Petrol vehicles remained the largest segment with 60,157 registrations, which is a 11.39% decline year-on-year from 67,889 units.
Meanwhile, petrol hybrid registrations increased 71.08% from 2,901 units to 4,963 units.
Diesel registrations fell 54.51% to 126 units, while Green Diesel registrations declined 28.02% to 3,196 units.
Looking at year-to-date figures, Malaysia registered 566,616 vehicles from January to August 2026, up 2.77% from 551,365 units during the same period last year.
EVs accounted for 8.38% of total registrations YTD, compared to 4.24% during the same period in 2025.
In just eight months, Malaysia recorded 47,508 EV registrations, up 103.1% from 23,396 units during the same period last year.
This also means Malaysia has already surpassed the 44,813 EVs registered for the whole of 2025 and there are still four months remaining in 2026.
Top 30 EV Models in August 2026
The Proton e.MAS 5 continues to be the #1 EV in the country and it recorded a massive 4,770 registrations in August, which sets a new monthly record for the model. That is almost double the 2,402 units registered in July and the e.MAS 5 alone accounted for 54.0% of all EVs registered in Malaysia during the month.
Tesla also had a strong showing in August. The Model 3 climbed to second place with 659 registrations, up sharply from just 135 units in July. It is currently the #1 electric sedan in Malaysia for 2026 so far.
The Proton e.MAS 7 took third place with 613 units, followed by the Tesla Model Y with 507 registrations. The Zeekr 7X rounded out the top five with 308 units.
Further down the list, the Chery iCaur V23 recorded 264 units, followed by the BYD Atto 3 with 252 units and Chery iCaur 03 with 142 units.
The Leapmotor C10 was ninth with 125 registrations, while the BYD Sealion 7 completed the top 10 with 118 units.
There were also some interesting movements outside the volume leaders. The all-new BMW iX3 recorded 55 registrations in August. Meanwhile, the Denza Z9 GT also registered 36 units in August, which is also the same number of units registered in the previous month.
Perodua’s QV-E fell to 56 registrations in August, down 48.6% from its previous monthly high of 109 units in July.
Top 30 EV Models in Malaysia (January to August 2026)
For the year to date, Proton e.MAS 5 continue to hold a commanding lead as Malaysia’s most popular EV.
A total of 17,837 e.MAS 5 units were registered from January to August. In fact, the e.MAS 5 is currently the seventh most popular vehicle model in Malaysia this year, ahead of the Proton X50 (17,828) and the Honda City (16,009). It is slightly behind the Proton S70 which has registered 17,953 units this year so far.
The list continues with Proton e.MAS 7 in second place with 4,004 units, followed by the BYD Atto 3 in third with 3,027 registrations and the Zeekr 7X in forth place with 2,449 units.
The Chery iCaur V23 overtook the Tesla Model Y to take fifth place with 2,173 registrations.
Tesla’s stronger performance in recent months has also lifted the Model Y to sixth with 1,978 units, while the Model 3 climbed to seventh with 1,755 units.
Top 20 EV Brands in Malaysia (January to August 2026)
Proton continues to dominate Malaysia’s EV market with its e.MAS sub-brand, recording 5,383 EV registrations in August alone. That represents 60.9% of all EVs registered during the month.
For the first eight months of 2026, Proton recorded 21,841 EV registrations, almost three times BYD’s 7,472 units.
BYD remained the second-largest EV brand YTD, although its monthly registrations dropped from 1,226 units in July to 571 units in August.
Tesla had one of the biggest gains in August with 1,166 registrations, nearly double the 605 units it recorded in July. As a result, Tesla has been bumped to third place YTD with 3,733 units, overtaking Chery at 3,525 units.
Meanwhile, Zeekr remains fifth with 2,957 registrations, followed by Leapmotor with 1,512 units.
Perodua’s monthly EV registrations declined from 109 units in July to 56 units in August, bringing total QV-E registrations for the year so far to 374 units.
EV charger deployment concerns
The latest JPJ figures indicate that more Malaysians are willing to switch to EVs and the adoption is now going mainstream. EV registrations continue to more than double year-on-year and now account for more than 11% of monthly TIV.
The bigger question is whether Malaysia’s charging infrastructure can keep up.
The government has proposed imposing a levy on EV sales to help fund public charging infrastructure but as we raised previously, funding isn’t the main bottleneck.
Malaysia already has several private Charge Point Operators willing to invest, including ChargEV, Gentari, JomCharge, Charge+, ChargeSini, DC Handal and TNB Electron. The bigger concern is the lengthy approval and deployment process.
There are already examples of high-powered DC chargers which have been physically installed but have yet to go live for more than a year.
What is needed more urgently is a proper green lane for EV charging infrastructure which brings regulators, local councils, utilities and relevant agencies together under a more streamlined approval process.
If a charger can be installed within weeks but takes more than a year to switch on, raising funds through levy will not solve the underlying problem.
The government recently revised Malaysia’s EV charging target to 30,000 charge points by 2030 after the country missed its previous target of 10,000 charge points by 2025. To meet the new target, Malaysia would need to deploy and turn on more than 400 charge points every month.
With EV adoption now accelerating much faster than the overall automotive market, policies and processes need to move just as quickly.
The private sector is already prepared to invest and capitalise on growing EV demand. The priority should be removing red tape, speeding up approvals and grid upgrades, and ensuring completed chargers can be switched on without unnecessary delays. Otherwise, Malaysia risks having EV adoption grow faster than the infrastructure needed to support it.
