Electrifying new idea for LRT users

Powerful: Chong Jia Ni, 21, checking out how the Comos electric car works at the Bangsar LRT station. – RAYMOND OOI / The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Come May, LRT users will be able to rent an electric car for a couple of hours from five LRT stations in the Klang Valley instead of having to use either a taxi or a bus to go to their next stop.

A carsharing deal is being worked out between RapidKL and electric car company Comos (Cohesive Mobility Solution) to give public transport users another option of moving around.

“You can pick up a car at the Pasar Seni LRT station and drive it to a meeting at CapSquare or to Lorong P Ramlee,” Comos chief executive Badrulhisham Mohd Ghazali said.

He said Comos Carsharing, the first of its kind in Malaysia, would have up to 16 fully electric Renault Zoes at five LRT stations and five public spots when it starts in May.

Comos users can pick up one of these cars, drive it somewhere and hang on to it for a few hours before driving it back. They can also drop off the car at one of the 10 Comos pick-up points in the Klang Valley.

These will be at the Asia Jaya, Bangsar, Pasar Seni and Ampang Park LRT Stations and in Medan Tuanku, Lorong Bunus, Lorong P Ramlee, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Jalan Semarak and Universiti Malaya.

Comos users are likely to be billed for every 15 minutes of use with hourly rates of between RM25 and RM30 an hour.

Carsharers will have to first register with Comos before they are given a special access card and an account linked to their credit card.

They will then have to book an available car online which they can unlock with the access card before they drive.

Pick-up points also act as battery charging stations, which Comos users have to unplug their car from before each journey. On a full battery, a Comos car will have a range of 120km to 180km.

Badrulhisham said a Comos ride only ended when the charging cable was plugged back into the car or else, users would continue to be billed.

Comos, he said, would expand its service to Penang, Malacca and Johor Baru, with over 1,000 carsharing vehicles for the public by 2020.

More pick-up points, he said, would be launched each month after May.

Prasarana group managing director Azmi Abdul Aziz said Comos Carsharing was one of many moves to make it easier for people to get from one point to another.

“This is a new introduction to make public transport more appealing,” he said.