Should You Buy an Electric lliar in Malaysia? As electric vehicles {EV} and plug-in hybrids become more popular among car brands. this begs the question: Should we make the sw'rtch'.J Before making such a huge decision. it is always a good idea to brush up on the facts before heading to the dealership and understand if an EV is right for you. EVs are denitely trending and the thought of buying one must have crossed your mind you and everybody else to be exact. With Tesla setting up shop in Malaysia and announcing that the Tesla Model Y is available to order in Malaysia from RM199k. the hype around Elvis is increasing. Most of us can point out that a major benet of electric cars is the contn'bulion that they can make towards improving air quality. With no engine. electric cars produce no carbon dioxide emissions when driving. This is the ltey point about electric cars and their role in reducing air pollution. even after taking into consideration the power generation required to keep the vehicle running. Despite playing your part in helping to reduce pollution. owning an EV might not be the right choice for you. It is important to understand that everyone has their own circumstances that may or may not benet from the purchasing of an El". What should you know? One could argue that the production of electric vehicles actually creates more carbon emissions. On one hand. this is somewhat true. as the manufacturing of the lithium- ion batteries thal are essential lo Ev's generates high amounts of emissions. This manufacturing process itsell accounts for more than a third of the CO2 emissions within the lifetime of a single vehicle. However. research conducted by the European Energy Agency. has revealed that even with electricity generation. the carbon emissions of an electric car are around 1? 33% lower than driving a petrol or diesel car. More research and studies into the use of recycled batteries are also being conducted in order to increase the viability of E'v's as an alternative to fossil fuel cars. Though it should be noted that battery recycling is stili somewhat prohibitively expensive and will certainly latte some time before it becomes more affordable. The most obvious difference between electric vehicles and regular cars is the environmental impact it causes as a result of carbon emissions. One of the reasons for this is the complete absence of a fossil fuel engine in EVs. As such. il is even more environmentally friendly compared to hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles which still use fossil fuel engines alongside their electric batteries. It does seem like E'v's are the way of the future. With many countries such as the US. UK. Japan. and even India already swearing to ban gasoline cars in the future to combat carbon emissions. It will only be a matter of time before other nations catch up and Follow suit. As with all things. there are many things to consider before deciding to purchase an Ev. These vehicles have the potential to do good for our environment, but more might also be some valid reasons as to why you would not want to purchase one right now. As mentioned previously. EVs might ptay a key role in helping to reduce carbon emissions. Data gathered over the years has shown us undeniable proof that climate change is a real threat that is slowly getting worse. As the population grows. more and more vehicles are being put on the road. and gasoline vehicles are one of the major conu-ibutors to carbon emissions that adversely affect the climate. The environmental benets alone make this new technology worth considering at least. If you are worried that an Elv's battery won't be able to get you much distance. then you might be in for a surprise. While you denitely won't be travelling as far as a Car with a full tank of fuel. E'tfs on a lull battery can cover quite some distance at an affordable price, Take the Perodua Myvi for example. According to their website. the Myvi has a fuel consumption of about 21.1km per litre with and driving on. totalling about Tobltm on a full tank. Based on recent petrol price updates. a full tank would cost you around RM?3.30 for RON 95. On the other hand. let us look at the Nissan Leaf. one of the Elv's currently available in Malaysia. It has a dkwh which allows it to travel up to approximately 311km on a single charge. According to Nissan's calculations. it would only cost Malaysians about RM 20.64 to hJIIy charge the battery. The cost savings are obvious and this is not even taking into consideration the engine horsepower which is lower in a Myvi. For those who install their own personal charging station at home. this cost could even be lower. Unfortunately. it is not all rainbows and sunshine when it comes to owning or EV. Places such as China and Europe are far ahead in the EV game. having already built a robust E'v' infrastmcture with plenty of charging stations to put their owners' minds at ease. Compared to them. Malaysia is stiil at entry level. As such. it is a much harder task for Malaysians to nd a charging station. However. you will need to be prepared and make sure you fully charge your vehicle before long distance travelling. This is not to say that we are completely lacking in charging stations. According to Reglobal, there are approximately 600 EV charging stations across the country. Though it should be noted that it does take quite some time to charge an EV car battery, Depending on the remaining charge and the strength of the charger, topping up an EV battery can take as little as 30 minutes to as long as 12 hours! The most efcient way to guarantee that your EV won't run out of battery is to install a charge station within your own home so you can max out the battery overnight. which brings us to our next point. Seriously! Electric vehicles are not cheap. While buying an electric vehicle is an efficient way to help the environment, it is also a prohibitively expensive one. And that is not even counting the cost of installing a charging station in your home! Let's take the Nissan Leaf as an example once more. The car currently costs around RM'li'BBB. Not exactly the cheapest car option out there. especially for the 840 and some of the M40 nancial groups. if you were to look at the illustrious Tesla branded EVs. the price skyrockets even further. Add to this the fact that home EV chargers can cost between RM5,000 to RMlDDO including installation fees, you can understand why buyers will not feel motivated to get electric vehicles. This is one of the reasons why Malaysians rather choose to get a patrol car because it is more affordable compared to EVs. Fortunately. the govemment has introduced some tax incentives in order to encourage more Malaysians to take the plunge into EVs. As of 1 January 2022. EV producers can benet from a variety of tax exemptions, including on importsr excise. and sales. On the other hand, consumers can claim tax relief for owning an EV as part of the government's efforts to lower the cost of adoption of zero-emission vehicles. Just like gasoline engine cars. EVs will require regular servicing and maintenance to ensure safety and performance. Generally. EVs are relatively easier to maintain due to having fewer moving parts compared to gasoline cars. However, the availability of mechanics who have the skills to service E'v's is another story. The EV marl-let in Malaysia is still in its infancy. As suchr you will likely have to bring your EV to an ofcial service centre to maintain or repair your car, at least until the rest of the market catches up. All in all. the initial cost of getting yourself an electric vehicle is quite high compared to a gasoline one. On the bright side, the long-term savings could potentially make up for it. Generally, EVs are a much more appealing option to those who do not have financial issues. just as long as they are willing to put up with the slow growth of EV infrastructure, hftps:llwww.imoney.myfarticleslbuy-eieclric-car-malaysia Question 1 Based on the case study, in your opinion. consider to buy an EV car is a right choice in Malaysia. Justify your answer with reasons. {50 marks)