The development of the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure requires every bit of an effort from both the public and government sector. This effort would need to be further ramped up especially with the uphill target set at 10,000 EV chargers nationwide by 2025.
One such government agency that doesn’t get noticed much is the Jabatan Perancangan Bandar Dan Desa (PLANMalaysia) which is the urban town planning division responsible for planning, researching, drafting legislation and publication of all town planning guidelines.
Up to now, based on our conversation with PLANMalaysia during their research roadtrip to view the ChargeSini curbside EV charging facility in Seri Kembangan, there has not been any proper planning or guideline published with regards to EV infrastructure. However one is already underway and will be out by Mar 2023.
This fieldwork by PLANMalaysia is necessary to better understand the existing facilities that are already in place and if it’s all up to satisfactory standards as the department understands and appreciates those who have forged forward to introduce the EV charging facilities under their own initiative. Hence through this understanding the new guideline and framework that is to be published will do its best to work around the existing infrastructure.
According to PLANMalaysia, this guidelines would also involve all the proper licenses’ and permits EV charger owners would have to obtain, be it for public or private chargers plus addressing the parking space allocation issues especially in matured townships. However rest assured for private chargers it would be more towards a census basis to determine its locations as there is no monetary earnings associated with it.
Furthermore, through these new guidelines, PLANMalaysia ultimately aims to have one singular party for example the charge point operator (CPO) be accountable for the sale, installation and upkeep of the EV chargers both public and private. This is so that if there are any issues one singular party would be accountable for it unlike now where the supply and installation is generally handled by different parties.
Hopefully with these guidelines from PLANMalaysia, all EV charger related issues would be tackled and help push for the 10,000 target by 2025. Based on the data by MAA, there are already 2,093 EV’s registered as of last Oct 2022. We are pretty sure the number would double by the end of quarter 1 2023 as more pocket friendly long range EVs from automakers like BYD and ORA start flooding the market. Just BYD alone has received in excess of 1000 bookings in just 10 days of launch.
