Tengku Zafrul – PETRA To Study & Expedite EV Charging Station Licensing

The first National Electric Vehicle Steering Committee (NEVSC) meeting of the year was recently held at MITI Headquarters, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister II and Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA), YAB Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah. This was announced earlier today by YB Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI).

Additionally, Zafrul said that the regularity of these gatherings demonstrates the government's commitment to fostering the expansion of the nation's electric vehicle (EV) industry and ecosystem.

Enhancing EV charging station licensing and procedures was the main topic of discussion at this meeting. The discrepancy between the stated approval lead time and the actual licensing period has been brought to light by numerous EV users and media outlets, such as CariCarz.com, sparking a recent wave of public discussion on this issue.

He went on to say that the licensing lead time expedition would uphold the ministry's objectives to ensure user safety while supporting the expansion plans of charge point operators (CPOs). PETRA will streamline the Energy Commission's (ST) licensing approval process in order to achieve this aim.

Moving forward, PLUS and the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) will look into accelerating the process of developing charging stations alongside the PLUS highway network in an effort to increase the number of EV charging stations on highways. This would entail identifying the best locations for EV charging stations at PLUS highway laybys and rest and service areas (R&R).

TNB, on the other hand, will be in-charge of researching the best ways to source energy supplies and implement time-based energy usage incentives for EV charging activities from renewable energy (RE) sources, ensuring that EV usage would effectively advance the country's green agenda.

Finally, Tengku Zafrul stated that in order to maximise EV charging during times of low grid usage, the government is open to any suggestions that support this creative business model.

In addition, MITI acknowledged Northport (Malaysia) Berhad's concerns about the safety risk associated with the transportation of electric vehicles and promised to release an industry-wide best practice guideline within six months.  

The government will continue to support the use of renewable energy sources for EV charging activities and strengthen safety measures as EV adoption in the country grows day by day.