PETALING JAYA: The proposed consolidation of electric vehicle (EV) charging applications into a single platform is welcome but the priority should be to fully develop the EV infrastructure, say the various stakeholders.
Electric Vehicle Association of Malaysia president Datuk Dennis Chuah said although a consolidated platform would provide much-needed convenience for EV users, such a move should not result in hikes in charging rates.
He said the government should focus on improving the local EV ecosytem and ensure industry sustainability first.
“While such an application will make it easier for current EV users, it will not result in significant adoption if the lack of infrastructure and sustainability is not addressed first,” he told The Star.
Chuah said increased local manufacturing and service support centres, more charging stations and longer battery warranty along with manufacturer commitment to recycle EV batteries should be prioritised in order to boost EV adoption.
Malaysian EV Owners Club president Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said forcing a consolidated payment platform, while sounding attractive, could pose significant costs and reliability issues for EV users.
“Rushing it will essentially place all EV charging stations into a potential single point of failure where a single mistake could cause significant damage to the market and consumer confidence.
“It could also lead to hidden costs for the additional hardware and software to ensure proper consolidation, which could be passed down to EV users.
“Over the long term, there is also the additional risk of the EV ecosystem becoming stagnant and non-responsive to market and user needs due to a lack of competition,” he said.
To overcome this, Shahrol added that it would be better to help the EV market grow to drive industry players to develop their own user-friendly charging payment innovations.
“We are already seeing roaming arrangements between the larger players so that users can discover and pay for the majority of public charging points in the country.
“Other players have also introduced card payment terminals at their charging stations, bypassing the need for applications altogether,” he said, pointing out that EV users were more concerned with the reach, reliability, accessibility and price of charging rather than just payment application convenience.
EV enthusiast Farhan Abdul Rahim, 46, said a consolidation of charging payment platforms would be impractical as the industry had yet to mature.
“Consolidation now could actually halt the innovation currently happening between the charging point operators (CPOs) as they won’t have a reason to compete anymore.
“This could also potentially lead to increased costs to customers if only one party is given a concession to run the consolidated application, which could lead to a monopoly.
“Only if there is no additional cost to the end user and CPOs are given the opportunity to expand to 10,000 chargers nationwide, should we consider consolidation of payment platforms,” he added.
Currently, the cost of charging an EV depends on where the vehicle is, the charger type used, as well as the charging efficiency of the vehicle and charging point.