Tengku Zafrul: EV auto makers urged to consider making Malaysia their hubs in Asean

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 ― Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has encouraged electric vehicle (EV) auto makers with Malaysian facilities to consider making Malaysia their hubs to supply and service the fast-growing EV market in Asean.

He said this is because the EV market in Asean is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 33 per cent from around US$500 million (RM2.4 billion) in 2021 to US$2.7 billion (RM11.77 billion) by 2027.

“Malaysia has many positive factors that make its investment landscape highly conducive to supporting multinationals’ regional hub ambitions.

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“Apart from our strategic location, good infrastructure and rule of law, we also have a highly-established electrical and electronics industry which has been reliably feeding the other industries, including aerospace, renewable energy and EVs,” he said in his keynote address at the launch of UMW Toyota Beyond Zero here, today.

Commercially, the automotive industry registered a strong performance in 2023, achieving total industry volume (TIV) close to 800,000 units while the adoption of electrified vehicles (xEV) also increased from 2.77 per cent of TIV in 2022 to 4.12 per cent in 2023.

New registered passenger battery electric vehicles (BEVs) jumped from around 3,000 units in 2022 to more than 13,000 units in 2023.

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In preparing for the zero-emission vehicle transition, through the National Automotive Policy (NAP 2020), Tengku Zafrul said the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) is targeting to empower local automotive industry players through various investment incentives for the assembly or manufacture of hybrid and EVs.

“We also encourage collaboration with global industry leaders to bring the production of clean energy vehicles to Malaysia and begin their research and development facilities in the country so that we can develop more highly skilled local workers and support more domestic vendors,” he said.

The National Net Zero goal is also supported by NAP 2020, and, among others, the Hydrogen Economy and Technology Roadmap (HETR) 2023-2050.

On the industry’s high demand for skilled talent, he said Miti will continue to collaborate with the Ministry of Human Resource and Ministry of Higher Education to ensure that the industry’s requirements for skilled workers will be fulfilled.

“We have already started by suggesting a short-term solution, which is to open up our job market selectively to foreign graduates with the targeted qualifications to address the talent gap, while also working on long-term measures to increase domestic students’ enrolment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and the technical and vocational education and training track,” he said.

As far as energy-efficient vehicles and EVs are concerned, the government set up the National EV Steering Committee last year, which is a Cabinet Committee comprising key ministries such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.

In building the necessary infrastructure to achieve the target of having 20 per cent of TIV for EVs (including hydrogen fuel cells) by 2030, 50 per cent of TIV by 2040, and 80 per cent of TIV by 2050, the Steering Committee will, among others, address a few key concerns.

“The top concerns are firstly, the availability of charging stations to address customer range anxiety, and secondly, ensuring the supply to power up the charging ecosystem, so owners can charge any form of EV quickly, easily and reliably in an urban or rural setting,” he said. ― Bernama