Country still lacking in EV charging stations, says ministry

CYBERJAYA: Malaysia stills lack Electric Vehicles (EV) charging stations to cater for the growing demand of such stations as there are only about 1,000 EV charging stations compared to the 10,000 such stations targeted by 2025 says Chang Lih Kang.

"EVs are still new to our market and country. The EV ecosystem is still not complete because there are not enough charging stations.

"Therefore, manufacturers hesitate to enter the market," the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister told reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Alibaba Cloud and Agmo Holdings Bhd, here pn Tuesday (June 13).

The cooperation between the two digital platforms was aimed at enabling EV users seeking for such stations to identify EV charging stations and the services provided through Agmo EV Superapp applications that could be downloaded in Android and iOS.

The application (App) provides a complete integrated system which offers cashless payment methods, navigation assistance, rate offered at the respective stations before deciding to choose which EV charging station to go.

Agmo was a digital solutions and application development specialist involved in digitalising needs of customers’ business operations through the development of mobile and web applications as well as provision of digital platform-based services while Alibaba Cloud was a renown service provider from China.

Based on Agmo’s statistics, the state with the highest number of charging stations was Selangor, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

Chang said the government through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation would carry out several programmes for the development of the local EV industry with the cooperation of the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). - Bernama