KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (Bernama) — The Zero Emission Vehicle Association (ZEVA) has urged the government to provide incentives focusing on electric vehicles (EVs) charging infrastructure in the revised Budget 2023 to spur its growth from the current number of around 2,000 to 700,000 EVs on the road by 2030.
In a statement today, ZEVA said that EV charging infrastructure incentives should be offered to cater for city infrastructure, highway charging areas and high-rise buildings.
For city infrastructure, the association said that “starting up cost for any interested local and city councils to set up public charging in any particular city” should be offered, while “funding allocation of RM500,000 for each rest area catering for six DC (direct current) chargers per rest area” for highway charging areas should be provided.
Additionally, for high-rise buildings, it said grants should be given to non-landed property managers for EV charger installation at RM10,000 each.
Nonetheless, ZEVA said the incentives above should not cover 100 per cent of the charger’s cost but rather cater for the associated cost of setting up charging facilities.
“The government’s assistance is needed as the first movers’ assets will only be utilising a fraction of the full capacity of these facilities.
“ZEVA believes that the subsequent companies that intend to deploy their chargers nearby will be able to leverage these existing facilities easily, thus encouraging more to invest,” it said.
The association said that other incentives to consider include matching grants for research and development in the EV industry, specially catered for the automotive industry, cash rebates for trade-ins of petrol or diesel-fueled vehicles to EVs and cash incentives for EV new purchases.
“This small incentive will be useful to inspire some, if not all, of the high-end new vehicle buyers annually,” it added.
The revised Budget 2023 is slated to be tabled in Parliament this Friday.
— BERNAMA