Malaysia seeing exponential growth in EV sales, says Zafrul

18 Dec 2023

MALAYSIA is seeing exponential growth in electric vehicle (EV) sales and the positive momentum will likely continue until year end.

Malaysia has more than 100,000 registered EVs to date, said Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.

“More than 12,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been registered since 2011, with the number registered this year surpassing 9,000 units,” he said at the soft launch of the Malaysia Autoshow 2024 (MAS 2024).

For the first 10 months of the year, Malaysia’s vehicle sales registered a strong growth, up 11.6 per cent year-on-year to almost 647,000 units.

Tengku Zafrul said he believed that EVs would be the catalyst for the growth of Malaysia’s manufacturing exports.

He added that the electrical and electronics (E&E) products, a major supply chain in the EV sector, contributed to 40 per cent of Malaysia’s exports from the manufacturing sector.

“Hence, there is a lot of potential in new-generation vehicles. For example, a hybrid car will have around 1,500 chips.

“As for EVs, they may need at least 3,000 chips per car and these come from the E&E sector.”

Malaysia remains an attractive destination for EV investors. Between 2018 and June this year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority approved 59 projects worth RM26.2 billion in the EV sector and its related ecosystems, encompassing vehicle assembly, manufacturing parts and charging components.

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said to accelerate the National Energy Transition Roadmap that was launched in August, his ministry was targeting to have 20 per cent of the country’s annual new car sales to consist of electrified vehicles by 2030, 50 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050.

“The National Automotive Policy will provide the automotive industry with a clear direction,” he added.

Source: Bernama