This is why our EV policies are not moving in the right direction.
Right now there is a lot of chatter on Malaysian social media about electric vehicle (EV) ownership, battery charging facilities, warranty issues, after sales procedures, EV battery recycling and even the sudden surge of non authorized electric vehicles that have not been approved by our Road Transport Department.
Interestingly, our decision and policy makers in the government should be EV users, on a daily basis to better understand the EV ownership issues, if any, in our ever crowded cities.
They need to understand how and where the battery charging infrastructure should be implemented and work with the service providers (like TNB) to see the current limitations and also why many existing EV charging points are out of commission and why these ‘out of commission’ EV charging points are not being repaired (mostly at PETRONAS stations along the highways and also at government and town council buildings).
We have test driven 4 different new electric vehicles in the past 2 months and we have noticed a number of issues that should be addressed and have shared our thoughts with those who are willing to take note and make a move to better the infrastructure and also the ‘back end’ facilities needed to look after EV owners in Malaysia who have issues when on the road.
For example, when an EV runs out of battery power in a heavy traffic jam along a highway, what can be done to assist?
Is the highway breakdown service being trained and equipped to assist EV owners?
Elsewhere, will there be training for insurance breakdown service providers on how to TOW an EV that has had an issue. The wheels will be locked in this situation and how will the EV be towed, our ‘pulled’ up on the flat-bed truck?
How will public EV charging bays be governed to make sure NON EV drivers Do Not Park at the bays, which puts EV owners needing to charge their cars in ‘panic’ as their batteries run low! (please see how this 4 petrol powered cars pictured below are parked at EV lots)
Meanwhile, more chat and less action is going on weekly on various platforms, TV, Radio, news, and online portals and there is No real world experience being put into action by policy makers.
