The Govt Wants 30,000 EV Chargers By 2030, But We Barely Hit Half Of Our Last Target

If you currently drive an electric vehicle (EV) in Malaysia, or you've been hovering your finger over the "buy" button on a new one, you already know the absolute pain of looking for a working public charger outside the Klang Valley. Range anxiety is very real, and the struggle to find a plug that isn’t broken or occupied is a daily topic in local car groups.

Well, the government heard us complaining. During a session in the Dewan Rakyat, Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Sim Tze Tzin dropped a massive new milestone: The government is now aiming to build 30,000 EV charging stations across Malaysia by the year 2030.

On paper, that sounds fantastic. But if you've been tracking Malaysia's green transition, a sudden wave of skepticism is completely justified. Why? Because our previous milestone was to hit 10,000 public chargers by 2025, and official data shows we only managed to roll out around 5,600.

So, how exactly are we going to build more than five times that amount in the next few years when we barely cleared half of our last target?

Turns out, there is a massive behind-the-scenes bottleneck that has nothing to do with finding empty parking spaces.

The Real Reason Your Favourite Mall Doesn't Have Fast Charging

Most everyday drivers assume that installing a high-powered EV charger is as simple as mounting a box to a concrete wall and plugging it into the building’s existing electrical room. MITI just pulled back the curtain on why that's a complete myth. 

According to Deputy Minister Sim, expanding our network isn't a retail real-estate problem, it’s a power grid capacity crisis. High-voltage Direct Current (DC) fast chargers pull an immense amount of electricity. If you just hook them up to normal commercial lines, you risk overloading local setups.

To fix this, the government is working with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) to construct entire, dedicated power substations solely to feed these upcoming charging hubs.

In short: No new TNB substations, no fast chargers. This massive engineering hurdle is the main reason why operators haven't been able to expand into smaller towns as quickly as they wanted to.

Read: EV 'Fuel' Hike: How To Use TNB’s Off-Peak Rates To Dodge The Upcoming August Surcharge

The Push Beyond Major Cities

This grid upgrade cannot happen fast enough. During the parliamentary session, Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Dr Ku Abdul Rahman Ku Ismail pressured the ministry to stop focusing all the charging love exclusively on major metropolitan hubs like Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

The opposition urged the government to expand infrastructure to secondary towns like Sungai Petani and Alor Setar so that cross-country EV travel actually becomes viable for regular families. Furthermore, there are calls to collaborate with the Public Works Department and the Housing and Local Government Ministry to legally mandate EV chargers into residential developments, like apartments and condominiums, so high-rise residents aren't locked out of EV ownership.

MITI has noted the suggestions, stating that while these foundational upgrades will take time, they are currently formulating fresh, targeted incentives for private Charging Point Operators (CPOs) to make building in smaller towns financially viable.

The roadmap to 30,000 chargers is officially laid out, but the success of our EV transition is no longer up to car manufacturers, it's resting entirely on how fast TNB can dig up roads and upgrade the national power grid.

Read: Updated 2026: Top 10 CPOs In Malaysia

Sources: BERNAMA | NST