Govt to reveal winner of energy-efficient vehicles manufacturing licence by April

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will announce the decision to award manufacturing licences for the production of energy-efficient vehicles (EEVs) to a foreign company in the next two months, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

“There has been some interest from some very major automotive players, and within two months, I will be making an announcement on what manufacturing licences we are approving to one international company to manufacture EEV cars in Malaysia, in particular (for) the export market,” Mustapa said at a speech yesterday.

“This is the impact the National Automotive Policy (NAP 2014) has created on the industry,” he added at the launch of the NAP 2014 Roadmaps media announcement.

Announced in January, the NAP 2014 aims to turn Malaysia into an EEV hub in Asean, where the local production of hybrids and electric vehicles would be promoted within the country.

Meanwhile, the Government, via the Malaysia Automotive Institute along with Arca Corporation Sdn Bhd, AutoCRC Ltd and Swinburne University of Technology, signed and exchanged a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development and manufacturing of electric buses, lithium ion batteries and the Public Transportation Information System for fleet management.

According to Arca’s executive chairman Datuk Che Azizuddin Che Ismail, the project would involve an initial capital of RM200mil for the technology acquisition and the setting up of a manufacturing plant towards this end.

The MoU is an extension of the existing cooperation between Malaysia and Australia under the Malaysian-Australian Free Trade Agreement, which will see cooperation in the areas of research and development and eventual commercialisation, with the aim of adopting such busses first in Putrajaya and Langkawi before expanding to other parts of the country and the region.