Malaysia to open its first highway-integrated EV charging hub soon

Yinson GreenTech and PLUS Malaysia have announced a new joint-venture entity called ‘Terra ChargEV’ to develop the new EV charging facility, which they have aptly named ‘The Hub.’ They plan to build it at the Seremban Rest and Service Area (Southbound) on the North-South Expressway that connects Kuala Lumpur with Seremban, a city located 66 kilometres south.The Malaysian companies recently broke ground on the site, and they expect to complete construction on schedule, in line with their target of making The Hub fully operational by March 2027. The Hub will feature only DC fast chargers and will allow up to 20 EVs to charge simultaneously.Neither Yinson GreenTech nor PLUS Malaysia disclosed the specifications of the chargers, but they did say that fast charging will take 20 to 30 minutes. Yinson GreenTech stated that The Hub will have a total installed capacity of 1.2 MW, which almost certainly rules out the inclusion of ultra-fast DC chargers.Currently, all the highways that PLUS Malaysia operates feature DC chargers with an output of between 47 kW and 200 kW. In August this year, the company announced it was offering a total of 112 EV charging points on its highways in operation during the first half of the year.“By establishing these Hubs at pivotal locations on critical expressways, we are directly addressing the core needs of EV drivers—convenience, speed, and reliability,” Yinson GreenTech CEO Lim Chern Yuan said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “This initiative will help overcome range anxiety and encourage greater EV adoption, supporting Malaysia’s transition to green mobility and a robust EV ecosystem,” he added.In 2021, Malaysia announced a plan to install 10,000 EV chargers nationwide, including 9,000 AC units and 1,000 DC units, by the end of this year. At the end of last month, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) said that the country had reached only 5,149 units so far, comprising 3,440 AC chargers and 1,709 DC chargers, indicating that Malaysia is unlikely to meet its target.yinson.com, plus.com.my (PDF)

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