KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — To encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in Malaysia, the government has come out with several EV-specific incentives including full import and excise duties exemptions that are in place until the end of 2025. Despite that, EVs are still out of reach to the majority of the population due to one big reason: their pricing.
Thanks to EV incentives from the Thai government which include direct subsidy to consumers, customers can purchase the Neta V for just THB549,000 . The incentives also allow the BYD Dolphin to have a starting price of THB699,999 in Thailand.Several variants of Wuling fully electric city cars have made their way to this region too. Given their highly compact footprint, they come with relatively affordable price tags as well.
One of the obvious reasons is to protect the local automotive industry which is still in the very early stages of its electrification journey. In fact, this particular justification has been confirmed by Tengku Zafrul, the Minister of Investment, Trade & Industry through a recent interview with the automotive news site, paultan.org.
On the other hand, Perodua has not yet revealed any targets for a fully electric model. That being said, it did mention 2035 as one of the aspirations behind the Electric Motion Online EV concept that the company showcased at the Malaysia Autoshow earlier this year.Malaysia’s EV charging infrastructure might not be ready to serve a sudden increase of EVs on the road. — SoyaCincau pic
The number of EV chargers as of late March 2023, from MARii’s presentation at E-Mobility Asia’s launch event. — SoyaCincau pic