Green Transport

I’m happy to see Green Vehicle priority in GBI although I don’t drive. Transportation is no doubt one of the hardest sector in curbing CO₂ but its 2^nd biggest CO₂ contributor!

On 18^th Oct 2011, 1^st Malaysia-German Sustainable Automotive Mobility Conference at Kuala Lumpur, rolled out National Automotive Policy under the purview of KeTTHA. MEGTW was tasked to draft the roadmap.

 Other than green tax rebate, tax incentive, 0 down-payment and etc. Infrastructure is critical to achieve the 10% EV quota for every ICE vehicle import or produced. As of 2011, there are 21.25million registered vehicle in Malaysia. 11.75% up from 2009. 14 Feb14, the Star Newspaper published that car sales in projecting to grow at 10% year-on-year and seems like the demand for vehicle not going to back down any sooner. Thus the 10% EV target has to match with the growing number of overall vehicle demand and while petrol station is well covered and growing healthily in Malaysia, EV charging station look like a rare species concentrated mostly in Klang Valley.

Coverage of charging station determine the length of EV travel, say if you travel frequently outstation, more than 200km but no charging station is available within the journey and your EV only run 100km maximum then EV might not be an option for you. Therefore, provision of infrastructure is important to promote the growth of EV in effect to reduce CO₂ emission. Of course further discussion on the technical part such as, socket-to-socket& fast charging is another story.

Notwithstanding the facts that more than 90% of energy supply still suck fossil fuel (with 9.4% hydro, I call it fake renewable energy as it massacre many trees& cause permanent environmental impact), as of 2010. Electricity suck up from EV has no much different than ICE vehicle. however, renewable energy in the supply mix composition has to grow in tandem with green transport (EV or hybrid) so that when in time to come both sector can complement each other toward sustainability, especially so for stubborn Malaysian.

It’s not easy to make code of practice/ guides/ law. A thorough study on the anthropology& demographic of the local is necessary to make technicality practicable.

Analogy:

Malaysia has introduced contactless smart card (touch’n go) since 18 March 1997 for LRT& bus before Singapore have their ez-link card in year 2002, but it take less than 6 months for > 85% of Singapore commuter to use ez-link whereas even till today (after 17years!) less than half of the LRT& Bus commuter use touch’n go.

Factually, does it means we are stupid or somehow less intelligent? I don’t see how Singaporean born any smarter than us since Singapore used to be just a tiny Malaysia island and majority of them are Malaysian by birth, even the major immigrants now is still Malaysian. The clues lie on the relationship between residents and government, and the efficiency that make the people move along with their environment rhythm.

Example:

 In Singapore, All MRT station has machine for top-up, counter to top-up by whether cash, nets, cashcard or credit card but not all LRT station can top up and staff at counter  show you the lackadaisical attitude even after Japanese 5S training.

Malaysian just not easy to adopt/ adapt new things thus EV has to be promoted in advance while hoping RE can take up bigger pie in the energy mix in the future.

Rebound effect being another factors in consideration as oppose to direct cost reduction& incentive from import duty& tax exemption, in the bigger picture of carbon emission ensued. Providing the infrastructure is still the way to go.

With parking priority couple with charging station, I think it make more sense of owning a EV especially cost-mileage comparison to petrol ICE, EV cost only 10% of the petrol ICE.

Example: it cost RM0.50 for ICE travel per km, it only cost RM0.05 for EV J

Refer to  the website for more info.

If car ownership ratio remain 1:5 or even drop down steadily. We still need to find ways to replace ICE vehicle with EV in quantum in order to meet the target set.

I also suggest to provide bicycle parking even Malaysia is currently not bicycle friendly yet. In fact, we are not even motorized vehicle friendly as evidenced by ranking as one of the world top road accident country. Ironically, developing country, like China, is shifting from cycling to car while the advanced country is going back to environmental friendly bicycle. It take time to gain momentum and building infrastructure but somehow it got to start somewhere. I’m glad every 3^rd week of the month KL central district will close the road for outdoor activities such as cycling.