Malaysia targets 15% of new car sales to be EVs by 2030

Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz has stated that MITI is targeting 15% of the total vehicle sales volume to be around 15% just for EVs by 2030.

The newly-appointed minister of international trade and industry made the statement during the BYD Atto 3 EV SUV launch at Bandar Malaysia. Looking at the figures, is 15% even possible to achieve in the next eight years? Let's look at the numbers, shall we?

15% TIV target for EVs by 2030, 38% by 2040 - boleh ke?

Based on what the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) TIV forecast for 2022 earlier in the year, it was estimated that a total of 600,000 new vehicles will be sold by the end of the year. That number was then increased by 5% in the middle of the year to 630,000 units.

Looking a year back in 2021, which presented the lowest number of new car sales in the past 14 years, the total TIV was only 508,911 units. For the sake of the argument, let's say that the number of new car sales for 2030 is around the same ballpark - 500,000 to 600,000 units per year.

15% of that is between 75,000 to 90,000 units and that's the estimated new car sales figure just for electric vehicles by 2030. Can or not? There are a lot of things to consider in order for EVs to appeal to the mass public, particularly pricing and issues related to charging outside of major cities.

Tengku Zafrul also mentioned that the National Automotive Policy together with the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint outline will serve as the government's direction to push and support the country's EV initiatives.

10,000 public EV charging stations by 2025

While 15% seems like an ambitious figure to achieve in the next eight years, Tengku Zafrul also added that the total sales for EVs will be 38% by 2040. To cater to this exponential growth, MITI is also looking at expanding the country's charging infrastructure to 10,000 public EV charging stations by 2025.

According to Tengku Zafrul, "To achieve these goals, the national EV taskforce (NEVT) led by MITI and comprising relevant government ministries and agencies are sworn to carry out the permutational EV development practice. To ensure the strategies remain relevant, NEVT will review and implement new ones to promote the healthy EV industry in Malaysia."

While we wait for 2030 to arrive, check out our thoughts on the Kia EV6 GT-Line as we took it out for a nice camping trip by the beach in the video, below.