Lofty ambition, but the movement towards that hasn’t quite matched the intention. As of September last year, there werein place, and though the number of EV charging stations is now reportedly around the 1,000 mark, this is still well short of that needed to push the country’s electrification agenda forward, according to science, technology and innovation minister Chang Lih Kang.
He said there was a need to increase the number of charging stations in order to spur continued growth in the segment, as“EVs are still new to our market and country. The EV ecosystem is still not complete because there are not enough charging stations. Therefore, manufacturers hesitate to enter the market,” he said after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Alibaba Cloud and Agmo Holdings earlier this week.
The cooperation between the two digital platforms aims to make life easier for EV users by providing suitable information on public charging stations through the Agmo EV Superapp so they can decide which charging station best serves their needs. The application will offer users information such as method of payment, navigation assistance as well as the charging rate offered by the respective service providers.
Chang added that his ministry would carry out several programmes for the development of the local EV industry with the cooperation of the ministry of investment, trade and industry and Tenaga Nasional. Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.