BMW Malaysia: Our dealers’ DC fast chargers will be open to all makes

Earlier in August, BMW Malaysia announced that it will be installing DC fast chargers on all BMW dealerships across the country. We are now happy to confirm that this facility, when rolled out in 2022, will be open to EVs of all makes.

“It is open (to all makes),” said Sashi Ambi, Head of Corporate Communications for BMW Malaysia, when asked if the DC fast chargers will be available for use by EVs of makes other than BMW (or MINI).

“I think to keep a closed view for electric vehicles infrastructure, in Malaysia especially, is not the best. Even when we did our strategies for plug-in hybrid vehicles, it was never meant to be solely for BMW,” he added.

“To be the technology leader, or even infrastructure leader, sometimes we have to step back and look at things that are beyond what we are (usually) supposed to do. This is the same with BMW i and the electromobility infrastructure in Malaysia, so we are not keeping it closed,” said Sashi, who also expressed this is one of the most exciting project that BMW Malaysia has worked on in recent times.

Sashi was speaking to the Malaysian media at the sidelines of a virtual preview of the forthcoming BMW iX and BMW i4, the former surprised the local BMW team by netting over 100 pre-orders in just one week.

Also read: 2021 BMW iX: 64 pre-bookings from Malaysia in just 5 days

He also commented that the next 6 to 8 months will be a very exciting time for EV fans.

Although there have been delays on the government-side in announcing Malaysia’s Low Carbon Mobility blueprint, BMW Malaysia is biting the bullet and will push ahead with its own transformation programs to make BMW (and MINI) into a leading technology company (as opposed to being a mere car company) for green mobility.

Also read: BMW Malaysia: Exciting times for EV in the next 6 - 8 months but gov needs to speed up

DC fast chargers allow for high speed battery charging. In the case of the BMW iX xDrive40 (from RM 435,800), a 10-minute charge is enough to add more than 90 km of range.

Electric vehicles (specifically, it’s Battery Electric Vehicles or BEVs) can be charged either by regular Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC). The former are more common, similar to household power supply.

A regular ‘wallbox charger’ fitted to a typical household’s single phase, AC power network takes about 7 hours to fully charge a 76.6 kWh battery pack BMW iX xDrive40.

DC chargers are the ‘gods’ of fast charging, but require expensive hardware. The BMW iX xDrive40 can pull up to 150 kW of power, enough to fully charge the vehicle in less than 1 hour.