Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) will be setting up an electric vehicle (EV) charging network along the North-South Expressway (NSE), as part of its collaboration with highway operator PLUS Malaysia, Bernama reports.
The partnership, first announced back in March this year, will see an investment of RM90 million from the national utility firm over a span of three years to develop the EV ecosystem here in Malaysia.
“TNB aims to accelerate the battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption to capture the RM1.3 billion market value by 2030 and welcomes collaboration with strategic partners to stimulate the growth of the BEV ecosystem,” TNB President and CEO Datuk Baharin Din said at an editors’ media briefing today, as reported by the newswire.
The collaboration between TNB and PLUS is aimed as a holistic approach in reducing carbon emissions on PLUS highways. In addition to setting up EV charging infrastructure, the companies will also install energy efficiency monitoring and solar photovoltaic systems at selected rest and relaxation (R&R) stops along the highways.
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In addition to PLUS, Baharin said TNB is also in talks with other highway operators and federal road authorities under the Public Works Department (JKR) to set up EV chargers.
He added that the Malaysian EV market has a potential for 3,300 charging points for 33,350 BEVs on the road by 2025, which should translate to an annual electricity revenue of RM80 million. By 2030, the numbers are set to increase to 18,000 chargers and 524,409 BEVs on the road, and an annual electricity revenue of RM1.25 billion by 2030.
“By 2030, we forecast half a million EVs to be on the road with 2.3 TWh of electricity charging requirements, valued at RM1.26 billion. This also means 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions reduction by taking internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles off the road,” Baharin was quoted by Bernama as saying.
The potential positive impact on both climate and the company’s revenue makes the development of the EV ecosystem a clear priority for TNB, he explained.
Aside from building charging infrastructure, TNB will also be providing upskilling and reskilling courses for the EV industry, as well as electrifying about 4,200 of TNB’s own fleet of vehicles, sponsoring EV-related studies, and fostering coalitions among EV sector players such as Zero Emission Vehicle Association (ZEVA), Bernama reports.
