The Malaysian government will be ‘looking’ into ways to introduce affordable battery EVs priced below RM 100,000, said Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

The Minister said battery EVs currently on sale in Malaysia are priced beyond the reach of most Malaysians.

“The majority of EVs on sale today are priced above RM 100,000 but we want to bring such vehicles to the wider market, which is the price range of below RM 100,000. To achieve that, we will look into how the government can work with automotive companies,” he told Astro Awani.

The Minister also added that prices can be reduced further if car companies are willing to locally assemble such cars here.

"Proton will bring in Geely vehicles in the near future (but) if we can assemble the vehicles in Malaysia, maybe it will help us to offer EVs (at a) lower cost," he said at a press conference yesterday in Bangi to launch the Bangi Golf Resort EV Charging Station.

Also read: Proton signs deal to sell Geely-Mercedes' Smart EV models; Sales by Q4 2023, own charging network planned

Battery EVs are currently exempted from import, excise and road tax until 31-December 2023. Beyond that, only locally assembled models can continue to enjoy the exemption on import and excise tax (but not road tax) until 31-December 2025.

Budget 2023 included a proposal to extend the current tax exemptions by 1 year but it was not passed by the Parliament as the Parliament was dissolved just days after the tabling of the Budget.

Currently, the cheapest EV model on sale in Malaysia is Great Wall Motor’s Ora Good Cat, which starts at RM 139,800, imported (CBU) from China. The price is still about RM 25,000 more than a similarly equipped model in Thailand, because the Thai government is giving about RM 19,000 worth of subsidies for EV purchase, on top of import tax waiver (for China-built EVs, under China-Thailand Free Trade Agreement), and reduced excise tax (just 2 percent).

China sells a wide range of low cost mini EVs, at an equivalent price of less than RM 50,000 but it is not possible to sell these models at such prices outside of China.

The Wuling Air for example, is priced at Myvi-like RM 50,000 in China, for the 300 km 26.7 kWh Long Range variant. Over in Indonesia, which also exempts EVs from taxes, the same model (now a CKD locally assembled model there) is priced at IDR 295,000 (~RM 84k). That’s the price of a Toyota Yaris.

The reason is because Chinese mini EVs benefit from generous subsidies, so prices are artificially reduced.

Prices will go up even higher if the car is to be homologated to European UNECE safety standards, which Malaysia adopts.

Also, most countries including Indonesia, don’t subsidize petrol.

So, before Malaysia’s wants to talk about promoting affordable EVs, it needs to ask itself what exactly it wants to achieve.

You can’t be subsidizing petrol (which under the purview of the Ministry of Finance) while at the same time talk about moving the country to green, electric mobility, which requires buy-in from the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of International Trade and Industry to craft out supporting policies.

Meanwhile, nobody wants to talk about the most important, cheapest, and greenest mode of transport – public transport. Right now, Prasarana can't even get LRT trains and buses repaired and arrive on time, and it needs Minister Loke to crack the whip just to get them to figure out how to repair broken escalators.