An Ev Was Top Car Last Year But Anxieties Persist

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Last month, for the very first time, an electric vehicle (EV) was named the Overall Malaysia Car of the Year at the Malaysia Car of the Year Awards 2024.
The BYD Seal — equipped with the New European Driving Cycle and boasting an extended drive range of 650km — beat more than 70 new car models launched last year to the top prize at the 20th edition of the awards.
It was fittingly presented with the award in Kuala Lumpur by Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusoff, also the energy transition and water transformation minister.
The success was not unexpected as EVs almost outsold combustion engine cars in China, the world’s biggest car market, last year. Despite this, it appears that the transition to electricity is still hindered by range anxiety.
This year will see a transformation of the global auto industry with industry leaders walking back from their all-electric promises and producing more super hybrids to bridge the gap from combustion engines to electric motors.
For now, we must accept these super hybrids, plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) and range-extenders as offering near emission-free road life with petrol-power added on as a safety net for when one must drive beyond 80km a day.
Presently, up to 80 per cent of motorists drive less than 80km daily. Meanwhile, available data shows that only about 11 to 45 per cent plug in their hybrids to ensure a maximum state of charge prior to each use.
Premium car makers are already on the ball. The Mercedes-Benz GLC350e is a super hybrid SUV that gets 87km of pure electron range, allowing drivers to complete their usual daily commute solely on electric power.
Meanwhile, BMW has unveiled its new G99 M5 Touring, a plug-in hybrid super wagon that will enter the US market very soon.
In the third quarter of last year, US consumers bought three times as many Mercedes plug-ins as they did in the same period of the preceding year, according to Bloomberg’s NEF report.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Range Rover PHEVs, with an 85km pure electric range, has also flown off showroom floors in the US.
Mass market Japanese marques like Toyota and Mitsubishi, have also hit, or are approaching, a similar range performance.
Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV is said to have an electron-only range of 86km, as measured by the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, while the Toyota RAV4 PHEV has a range of 71km.
BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, recently released its fifth-generation super hybrid technology said to have achieved the world’s highest engine thermal efficiency of 46.06%, with fuel consumption as low as 2.9L per 100km, and a hybrid range of 2,100km per full tank of petrol and a fully charged battery.
Could this be the global car industry’s own DeepSeek moment? Are the fledgling Chinese EV car makers on the brink of upending their 165-year-old legacy rivals?
BYD’s 1.5L Xiaoyun hybrid engine already boasts an impressive thermal efficiency of 46%, as tested and certified by the China Automotive Technology & Research Centre (CATARC) at its facility in Hamburg, Germany.
That is an amazing achievement for the Shenzhen-based car maker since 35 per cent thermal efficiency has long been considered optimum for private passenger vehicles.
Established in February 2019, the China-owned CATARC Europe Testing and Certification GmbH has representative offices in Geneva and Japan and nine testing and research facilities. Its purpose is to replicate global automotive testing scenarios and reinforce the legitimacy of Chinese vehicles in the European market.
Malaysia has its own version of range anxiety, particularly as the peninsula’s east coast states are considered EV deserts.
The anxiety about range is reflected by the sight of vacant EV charging bays at the Gambang, Paka and Temerloh Rest Stop Areas, the few locations offering en-route charging points along the East Coast Expressway.
It means Malaysian EV users either confine their drives within urban areas or rely only on destination and home charging. Their caution towards public EV charging points is compounded by the need to download and use a variety of smartphone apps to activate the flow of electrons.
Additionally, there are fears that the charger may signal its availability despite being out-of-service, and hotlines are not attended to.
Early EV adopters may be able to manage this tension but not the new group of potential buyers, which include the curious and doubters.
In the context of super hybrids, Geely bought the maker of the iconic London black cabs in the mid-2000s and converted it into a range-extended PHEV to comply with Traffic for London’s requirement for zero emissions capability from taxis starting 2018. Geely started manufacturing and selling the PHEV cabs in 2017.
On that note, how will Malaysia respond to market demand for PHEVs as a bridge to full electrification?
Although EV sales penetration is presently at approximately 1%, sales of fully electric EVs are unlikely to achieve the ambitious targets set for them — 20% of new car sales by 2030, rising to 80% by 2050 — despite the presence of tax waivers.
Those targets may be more attainable but are unlikely to be achieved even if the government were to extend the tax-free status for full EVs for another five years beyond the present Jan 1, 2026 deadline.
To bridge that gap, the government would need to extend some, if not all, of the tax benefits to PHEVs. To qualify for these tax benefits, the government may want to consider imposing criteria such as a minimum battery power of, say, 20 kWh.
The energy transition can of course be accelerated by the removal of fossil fuel subsidies. Who’s to say that may not happen with Sarawak’s Petros and Petronas reportedly still battling their case out in court? - FMT
Yamin Vong is the founder of the Malaysia Car of the Year Awards programme and writes on his FB page, yamin.com.my
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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