The Malaysian government, through the announcement of the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim has issued a statement that the government will use electric vehicles (EV) as official transport related to the official affairs of ASEAN programs next year.
For this, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said that they will increase the number of EV charging stations throughout the country next year.
Now, it is reported that there are as many as 2000 EV charging stations across the country, most of which are concentrated in urban areas. The government already has plans in place to increase the number of EV charging stations to 10,000 by 2030.
However, for the near future, especially when the position of Chairman of the ASEAN group will be held by Malaysia next year, the Malaysian government seems to be trying to increase the number of charging stations to 4000 stations next year.
The increasing use of EVs is expected to help the country to reduce its carbon footprint, and this, together with the update to the production sector in using sustainable energy will help the country in enabling the government to achieve its ambition to ensure that 40 percent of energy consumption in the country is to use sustainable energy sources by 2030 as well.
Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, who is also the Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation said that one of the ways to speed up the process of increasing the number of EV charging stations is not only through Tenaga Nasional, but also with the help of the private sector, especially companies that are now ready to offer alternative EV chargers.
In the meantime, he also said that the rate of EV usage should be in line with the certainty that the existing electricity supply is sufficient for other uses such as for households, commercial buildings and even data centers, which are now also seen to require more electricity consumption.