Who’s interest are you protecting?
MITI under Johari Ghani is proposing that EV buyers must pay for the set-up costs of battery charging stations, and pay-per-charge.
Have we ever heard of car buyers paying for the set-up costs of petrol stations, and pay-per-charge? Never. Petrol stations were never funded by forcing every new car owner to shoulder the capital cost. Yet when it comes to EVs, suddenly the early adopters must foot the bill.
Singapore already has over 30,000 EV charge points and is on track to hit 60,000 by 2030. Did they impose a levy on every new EV? No. It was clear targets, streamlined coordination across agencies, and actual political will to get the infrastructure built.
Malaysia is about 459 times bigger than Singapore in land size, yet we only have 6,416 public EV charge points nationwide — still short of the earlier target of 10,000 by end-2025.
Now the new target is 30,000 by 2030. How is that progress?
Why so many unfriendly EV policies since he took over this ministry?
First, they set conditions that push the starting retail price of newly imported, fully built-up (CBU) electric vehicles to at least RM300,000.
Then came the conditions on BYD that stalled their investment plans in Tanjung Malim.
On top of that, Malaysia’s free EV road tax exemption officially ended on 31 December 2025.
Here you all keep complaining that the government is heavily burdened subsidising fuel. Yet there you go making it harder for ordinary people to own an EV.
To install 10,000 EV chargers nationwide will cost an estimated RM1.2 billion. Another 30,000 will cost about RM3.6 billion — roughly equivalent to just one month of fuel subsidy.
The monthly fuel subsidy has been running between RM3.5 billion and peaks of RM7.5 billion.
So why the need to levy the EV buyer?
Which intent are you looking after?
Does it benefit the consumer?
Does it benefit the country?
Does it benefit our economy?
Does it benefit our energy transition roadmap?
Do you all actually want more people using EVs, or fewer?
Rather than keep coming out with policies that restrict EV growth and usage, better just tell the people straight: you discourage them from transitioning to EV.
All these policies are regressive and backward.
Have you all not learned from the latest global oil crises? Do you think Malaysia’s oil production is forever available?
Stop pretending this is about “building the ecosystem.”
This is about protecting certain interests while making the clean energy transition more expensive and more difficult for everyone else.
