The government should consider including charging stations as national grid assets to support the proliferation of EVs in Malaysia, Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yin has said, according to Bernama.
Deeming the relationship between EVs and charging stations a “chicken and egg situation”, she said if there were not enough charging stations, people would not buy EVs, and conversely, if there were not many EVs on the road, no company would want to install charging stations.
While debating the 2025 Supply Bill yesterday in parliament, Yeo suggested that the cost of installing charging stations be borne by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) using its capital expenditure (capex) for the upcoming fourth regulatory period (RP4) of the Incentive-Based Regulation (IBR), spanning 2025-2027.
“By putting charging station installation under IBR, TNB will be the main executor and will therefore be able to plan and install public charging stations quickly and efficiently. Also, the cost-per-unit will be lower due to the economies of scale,” she said.
All capex for the national grid infrastructure is included under the IBR framework and is among the components used to set the base electricity tariff for Peninsular Malaysia, Yeo added.
She said that if RP4’s capex equalled RP3’s at RM20 billion, the cost of setting up charging stations would only be 2.9% of the total capex spent by TNB for the 2025-2027 period.
“Based on my rough calculations, to reach the 10,000 charging station target, we need about 7,500 more. Let’s say 20% of these are DC chargers, which cost around RM250,000 each, and 80% are AC chargers, which cost about RM35,000 each, the total cost would be RM585 million. The question now is, is it worth investing? I think it’s a big yes. This is because the impact is huge and positive,” Yeo said.
Meanwhile, Yeo also urged the government to speed up the tabling of the ‘lemon law‘, citing South Korea, the United States, Australia, Canada, Singapore and the Philippines as nations that have already implemented it.
“The lemon law gives the buyer the right to seek a refund or replacement if his/her vehicle continues to be seriously problematic after several repair attempts,” Yeo explained, adding that 70% of Malaysians own at least one car and that the lemon law will improve the quality of vehicles sold in the market as well as after-sales service.
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