KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) today urged the government to continue providing subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs), saying current demand remains too weak to meet national adoption targets.
Its president, Mohd Shamsor Mohd Zain, said the EV market has yet to gain enough traction to achieve the government’s goal of having electric vehicles account for 15 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2030.
“We feel that it’s still not enough so-called momentum for the EVs and the market needs to have also continuation to ensure that there will be a much more long term effect,” he told a press conference in Taman Tun Dr Ismail here.
He added that maintaining subsidies would also give manufacturers the confidence to plan their production strategies more effectively.
“Right now, the volume base is only about four per cent for EVs, and around 4.6 per cent for hybrid EVs,” he said, referring to total industry volume (TIV), which represents the total number of new vehicles sold in Malaysia.
“So it is still, I would consider still low because of the long term projection where the government exploration of 15 per cent by 2030.”
Currently, fully imported EVs are exempted from import and excise duties until December 31, 2025.
The exemption was initially slated to end on December 31, 2023, but was extended to 2024 in the first tabling of Budget 2023, and later extended again to the end of 2025.
