Southeast Asia lags in electric vehicles. Can it catch up?

Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand vying to be regional hubsFor self-confessed tech geek and adrenaline junkie Farhan Abdul Rahim, becoming one of the first Malaysians to own an electric car in 2020 was a no-brainer — but he didn’t simply stop there.

Farhan said he first became interested in EVs in 2017 after attending a conference for work that had a stand promoting the vehicles and featured a Tesla on display. But that uptake was mostly in the United States, Europe and China, with the latter two markets at about 20% and 25% of sales respectively, he said.A dearth of charging infrastructure outside urban centers, a lack of tax incentives and subsidies for both automakers and buyers, and slow progress on developing affordable EVs among Southeast Asia’s main manufacturers have held back the region, analysts said.

This means the EV transition in the region will differ greatly from that in China, Europe and the United States, where EV growth is fueled by the electrification of carsThe uptake of two-wheeled EVs has been higher in the region than electric cars, accounting for about 8% of all vehicle sales in market leader Vietnam in 2020, Eijbergen added.

More charging infrastructure and greater availability and choice of EVs would also help increase the appetite for these vehicles in the region, as would governments setting timelines for banning petrol and diesel vehicles, Gupta added. In coming years, Poling predicted, Southeast Asian countries will try to position themselves as regional EV manufacturing hubs. Ample nickel reserves in Indonesia and the Philippines could play a role in making the needed batteries.

Abhilash Gupta, an automotive analyst at research firm Counterpoint, noted that production of EV batteries is unlikely to be carbon neutral, and ramped up mining and manufacturing could carry environmental and human risks.

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