‘Long road ahead for EV charging stations in condos’

PETALING JAYA: Despite the government’s ambitious roadmap to have 10,000 Electric Vehicle Charging Bays (EVCBs) nationwide by 2025, including in high-rise properties, there remain barriers to getting EV charging stations into residential buildings.

Federation of Malaysia Electric Vehicle Associations president Datuk Seri Jason Lee said many condominium boards and management bodies are still against having EVCBs, thus denying EV car owners the convenience of charging at home.

This forces EV car owners to rely on public high-voltage direct current (DC) charging stations, which are costlier than if alternating current (AC) charging equipment typically used at home is installed in their residential building.

“Many of the Joint Management Body (JMB) and Management Corporations (MC) of high-rise properties do not want to allow end users to have EVCB facilities,” he said when asked for his comment yesterday.

Lee said that besides the need to increase the number of EVCBs nationwide, they also hope the Local Government Development Ministry can discuss the matter and study the Strata Management Act to compel the JMB and the MC of existing developments to make way for EVCBs.

As per the ministry’s guidelines released yesterday, the provision of EVCBs for existing developments is according to demand only.

However, for new developments, multi-level strata housing must have a minimum of 2% EVCBs from the total number of parking bays or a minimum of one EVCB at the visitor’s parking.

Lee also said with the government taking steps to increase the number of EVCBs, EV owners are urged to avoid abusing the bays.

“There are EV owners who treat EVCBs as parking spots and will leave their cars there to charge while they go shopping the whole day, depriving others who need to charge their cars. This mentality must change,” he said.

Ocean Vantage Holdings Bhd managing director Kenny Ronald Ngalin said with the EVCB Planning Guidelines serving as the point of reference for both the private sector and local authorities, it will enhance the EV charging infrastructure, which should also help the adoption of EVs by consumers.

“There is still some room for improvement, and we will continue to give feedback to the respective departments on those issues,” he added.

On the plans to have 10,000 EVCBs nationwide by 2025, from only 1,267 currently, Kenny said it is achievable, but the main challenge will be the availability of financing for investors and incentives for the first few years of operation.

“We all know that due to low adoption, any investor who enters the EV charging facilities segment will be unprofitable for the next few years.

“To ensure EV charging players are confident in expanding their investment, incentives such as special electricity tariffs, similar to what Thailand has done, and waivers or reduced parking bay rentals, similar to what Singapore has, are available.

“This will help ease the operation pressure faced by the investor, as the investment is capital-intensive and will generate very low operational revenue for the first few years,” he explained.

Kenny added that it is also expected that the number of EV users will hit 10,000 nationwide by year-end.

To boost the adoption rate of EVs, Kenny said the government could help by encouraging more EV charging infrastructure, providing assistance in funding, and providing any type of incentive that can help lower the operational expenses for the first few years.