For EV adoption to kick into high gear, gov of ASEAN countries should take the lead

During an annual Invest ASEAN 2021 investor conference organised by  Maybank Kim Eng, several industry players weighed in that South-East Asian countries need clear timelines and incentives to kick the adoption of electric vehicles into high gear.

Speaking at The Rise of ASEAN EV webinar, experts believe that investments for charging infrastructure and power stability will start coming in once the country’s government has set a timeline to phase out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and introduce incentives for purchasing an EV.

Eirik Barclay, Group Executive Vice President, New Ventures and Technology of Yinson Holdings, one of the world’s leading energy solutions providers, quoted Norway’s EV adoption plans as an example.

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In Norway, the government never offered a subsidy for EVs. Instead, the government increased taxes on ICE vehicles and fuel. This means that the government did not lose revenue.

Barclay believes that the removal of fuel subsidies will help encourage consumers to look towards purchasing an EV instead. He also encourages a properly planned infrastructure as part of the solution to mitigate range anxiety since this is the primary concern for EV adoption.

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Meanwhile, Lee Yuen How, Director of EV Connection Sdn Bhd, call for all stakeholders such as automotive OEMs, oil and gas companies, utility companies, charge point operators, and the government to work together.

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“If you leave it to the private sector, they will only build the charging infrastructure where there are high concentrations of EV users, leaving the semi-urban and rural areas to become EV-charging desert. Therefore, the government plays an important role in ensuring investment across all areas,” he added.

Jinsi Lee, Founder and CEO of Oyika, a Singapore based company that builds charging infrastructure, suggests that there should be a regulation that separates the battery and the vehicle for environmental benefits.

“The party that sells the vehicle must be responsible for the battery across its entire lifecycle, instead of transferring ownership to the vehicle buyer. The seller will be required to take the battery back, recycle it and reuse it as second life storage, decommission it and so on,” he said.

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He reasoned that if the battery is leased, it would reduce the consumer’s worry over purchasing a second-hand EV as they will still be able to fit the latest battery technology in their used EVs.

The practice is currently carried out by Oyika on motorcycles in Singapore, Lee claims that if it could be done on a motorcycle, then there should not be any issues to do the same for vans, trucks, and cars.

Maybank Kim Eng Research predicts that sales of EVs will equal the sales of combustion engine cars by 2030. The results will be driven by the global decarbonisation agenda and millennial consumer preferences among others.

Currently, only Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore have already declared their aggressive push towards EV adoption while Vietnamese car maker, Vinfast, has already started to encourage local consumers to adopt greener vehicles.