EV Charging Desert! Who To Blame - Government or CPOs?

As we browse through EV groups all over social media daily, talks are never ending with regards to EV charging. Why so, you might ask? Well, at the end of the day, the entire success or failure of the drive towards EV adoption is dependent on this sole factor and nothing else.

Ideally the government anticipated that the nation would require about 10,000 public EV chargers (1,000 DCFC and 9,000 AC) by the end of 2025. However, the MEVnet dashboard set up by PLANMalaysia thus far only shows 2,020 EV chargers across 750 locations nationwide.

However, The Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI) Tengku Zafrul recently admitted that the goal of having 10,000 ev chargers might have been a little too ambitious. In fact in one of his recent speeches, he only mentioned 1,500 EV chargers which are operational.

A quick check on another government related site, the Energy Commission (ST), only shows 654 licenced EV chargers across 223 locations. This begs the question: why are different agencies declaring different numbers in the name of transparency?

Aptly, this shows an obvious lack of communication and sharing of resources amongst the government agencies.  Let's not get started on the slow approval rate of EV chargers that are already set-up but waiting to be “fired” up - a situation we covered in THIS prior report.

On that fiery note, the EV charging deployment that was rapid in 2023 seems to have lost its steam in the first two months of 2024. Perhaps the viral EV fire involving a Mercedes-Benz EQB in Johor Bahru also led to this.

In fact, we’ve noticed quite a number of EV chargers that were running previously that are deactivated now, pending issuance of licence. Honestly, this does not look good for the drive towards EV adoption as many users are now having to scamper around looking for other charging solutions as their primary choiced EV chargers are now offline.

Recently on a short podcast on BFM, the matter of Malaysia's EV charging road map was discussed by host Richard Bradbury with Daniel Fernandez of DSF.my and Shahrol Azral from Malaysia EV Owners Club (MYEVOC). A hottake from the discussion was the apparent lack of EV charging infrastructure, especially on the East Coast of Malaysia.

Image Source: BFM.my

According to Sharol, the Malaysian highway network currently has just 29 locations housing 51 EVCBs with 50 kW or greater outputs. The best route is still heading down south from Klang Valley whilst north-bound travel stands second with a slightly lesser charging network. However, the East Coast still remains a charging desert.

He further added that this is simply an outcome of the government's push to grow the EV charging network by solely relying on the private sector with no financial aid or support provided. And that’s despite the fact that the charging network built contributes to the government's own set goal.

Obviously, any private entity would only invest in something with the quickest return on investment (ROI). This perhaps explains why the nationwide charging network is currently focused in major cities and popular routes amongst EV users too.

Next there is also the matter of leading by example, which is not apparent in Malaysia. Nearly all or most government vehicle fleets are ICE-powered. Why has this not changed? In the podcast mentioned, Daniel raised this matter and questioned the rationale of having SPANCO still as the government's official vehicle supplier - a role that can be performed by distributors without incurring any additional cost.

Having said that, from a conversation recently, we discovered that even at these “popular” routes along the highways, most charging stations only get used at most a few times daily (with exceptions to holidays). Now, imagine these stations placed at areas with less EV usage population.

Therefore, CariCarz.com sincerely hopes the whole idea of EV charging network development MUST be a joint effort between the government and the private sectors. This ought to better ensure a well planned roll-out of the EV road map nationwide.

Furthermore, the EV Steering Committee should also look at revamping the whole processes of EV chargers licensing approval. Bureaucratic bottlenecks as such  are evident, even at the local council approval level and Energy Commission.

Examples of which include the Terengganu Municipal (MBKT) council’s recent stop-work order for the first DCFC at Mydin Terangganu, which would have been the state’s first DCFC. Other than that, there are also multiple EV charging locations like Tesla’s charging station in Pavilion Bukit Jalil, which is ready but not running over the last few months pending ST licensing.

Having laid all the above out, how is the government planning to tackle this matter head on positively for EV space development in achieving carbon neutrality? How are they planning to incentivise CPOs to ramp up roll-outs that are “beneficial” to all and not just the select? And when is the EV road tax structure ever going to be announced?