KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia aims to attract RM20 billion investments in the electric vehicle industry of by 2025, before doubling the figure to RM40 billion in 2030.
Malaysia Investment Development Authority deputy chief executive office Lim Bee Vian is confident that the target will be met.
Lim pointed out that RM14 billion investments had been invested between 2018 and September 2022 in the thriving domestic EV industry.
The investments would enhance the EV ecosystem in Malaysia, especially in the development of critical components of EVs such as battery management systems, battery packs, onboard charging and charging infrastructure.
"We want to bring in more investments that can develop our ecosystem, more importantly in critical components," said Lim at the inaugural Electric Vehicle (EV) Conference 2023 at MIDA headquarters here today.
International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz is confident that Malaysia can leverage its position as one of the top electrical and electronics (E&E) manufacturer in the region to capitalise on the EV industry by servicing the whole EV value chain.
"Malaysia is already one of the leading E&E manufacturing hubs in Southeast Asia, and we are serious about leveraging our position.
"We have an established ecosystem, backed by solid R&D and standards facilities, through agencies such as SIRIM, as well as an established components' sub-sector that could service the whole EV value chain, comprising semiconductors, sensors, automotive electronics,transceivers, batteries and auto assembly," he said in his keynote speech.
The Asean EV market is estimated to be worth nearly US$500 million in 2021 and is forecast to grow to US$2.7 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate of almost 33 per cent from 2022 to 2027.
Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii) chief executive officer Phang Ah Tong said EVs would get increasingly affordable as increased demand increased would drive down the price.
"Even though the EV industry is still new, the market is explosive. In 2022, the global passenger car market was 58 million units, of which 10.5 million were EVs. This was an increase of 55 per cent compared to 6.7 million units in 2021.
"Every country has seen exposure and growth in the EV market, you can't run away from it, and I don't think it's going to slow down. When more people demand EV, the market improves, prices come down, and when prices come down, it will be much more affordable," said Phang.
Meanwhile, Lim said MIDA aimed to position Malaysia as the automotive hub in Southdast Asia, and eventually globally. This would help make EVs more affordable and accessible to the masses.
International Trade and Industry senior director of industry development division Datuk Hanafi Sakri said the ministry was in talks with national carmakers to help develop affordable EVs for the mass market.
"Hopefully in three or four years, we are able to come up with affordable EVs as without affordable cars, I don't think we are able to transition ourselves from internal combustion engines (ICE) to EVs.
"The EV industry is currently dominated by luxury cars which are beyond our major population, so we hope that we can meet the target of at least 30 per cent EVs of the TIV by 2030," he said.
The government intends to increase the number of EV charging stations nationwide from 900 currently to 10,000 by 2025.
The EV Conference 2023 is a collaboration between MIDA and MARii, in efforts to attract investors into the Malaysian EV industry and to boost the industry by supporting development of related technologies.
