SK Group, the parent company to SOCAR, might develop EV infrastructure in Malaysia.
The electric mobility revolution is coming, whether or not Malaysia is equipped for it. It has become the norm for mass-market brands to make full commitments towards electrification. Many have halted further development of internal combustion engines. Sooner or later, their relevance will fade. That leaves a couple of scenarios for Malaysia. Either we continue selling cars with petrol engines that use today’s level of tech or we start to expand on the infrastructure and talent pool required for electric vehicle deployment here.
Well, last week, MITI Minister Azmin Ali Tweeted that SOCAR’s parent company, SK Group were supportive of EV development in Malaysia. To that end, they would be expanding SOCAR’s activities in the country.
SK Group also manufactures copper foil that is key to battery production through their subsidiary, SK Nexilis. They have been in talks to set up production in Malaysia since 2019. More announcements were made earlier this year, but nothing solid has materialised as of yet.
However, if SK Group does end up committing, the future of electric, urban mobility could be in the hands of companies like SOCAR. One could easily imagine SOCAR’s current business model to be adapted to take advantage of a charging infrastructure set up by their parent company, SK Group.
Other EV Developments in Malaysia
We know that Porsche are looking to start locally assembling the Taycan in Malaysia. Currently, ChargEV seems to be the only serious nationwide EV charging grid. The last time we checked in 2018, they had only about 200+ charging stations nationwide (less than 1% of their initial 20,000 goal). The ChargEV website isn’t loading, so we can’t track where they currently are. Apparently, in September 2019, they were around the 250 charging stations mark.
About SK Group
SK Group (Korean: SK그룹, 에스케이그룹) is the third-largest conglomerate (chaebol) in South Korea. SK Group is composed of 95 subsidiary companies that share the SK brand name and the group’s management culture, named SKMS (SK Management System).
