Govt Will Continue Incentives For EV Charging Infrastructure Development

With a number of plans centered on electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy, Malaysia's Budget 2025 has paved the way for a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient future.
Although these incentives were not explicitly addressed in Budget 2025, the government will nonetheless offer incentives for the construction of EV charging infrastructure in order to hasten the nation's adoption of EVs.

One of the incentives, according to the Investment, Trade, and Industry Ministry (MITI), is the Green Investment Tax Allowance program, which offers charging point operators (CPOs) who fulfill the tax incentive requirements a five-year, 100% tax exemption in the form of an Investment Tax Allowance, that can be used to offset up to 100% of statutory income for each assessment year.

“Addditionally, incentives in the form of income tax exemptions are also being offered to companies manufacturing EV charging equipment in the form of a full income tax exemption on statutory income starting from the assessment year 2023 until the assessment year 2032,” MITI said in a response to a question from Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai regarding the specific allocations for the development of EV charging infrastructure in the current budget.

According to the ministry, the government anticipates that by 2030, there will be at least 400,000 passenger and commercial electric-powered cars on the road. As of September 30, 2024, 33,319 vehicles—including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and fuel cell electric vehicles—were sold annually. The sales rate for 2023 as a whole was 4.12%, or 35,723 units.

In the meantime, the ministry stated that Gentari Sdn Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd had committed to investing and had invested approximately RM76 million up until June 2024 in support of the development of the EV charging bay (EVCB).

MITI data shows that 2,214 EV charging stations have been installed as of the first quarter of this year. With the help of government incentives for the construction of EV charging infrastructure, it should be possible to meet the goal of 10,000 public EV chargers by the end of 2025.

However, the public's continued skepticism regarding EVs will make this difficult. The lack of public education and awareness initiatives is arguably Malaysia's most obvious EV plan flaw. There has been essentially no government-led campaign to inform the public about EVs and the charging infrastructure.

Because of this information gap, the field is now vulnerable to false information and scare mongering. Myths and misconceptions regarding EV safety and viability have spread unchecked due to a lack of credible, fact-based education.