It’s going to be electrifying under the hood
Play your part, climb on the ‘greenie’ bandwagon and reduce petrol consumption.
ELECTRIC cars will cost less than conventional vehicles between 2025 and 2030, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
The Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast says adoption of emission-free vehicles will happen more quickly than previously estimated, because the cost of building cars is falling so fast. The seismic shift will see electric cars account for a third of the global auto fleet by 2040 and displace about eight million barrels a day of oil production.
Just imagine this scenario: as battery prices plunge, in less than 10 years, electric cars will be cheaper than fossil-fuel powered vehicles, turning the global auto industry upside down and signalling economic turmoil for oil-exporting countries.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve already joined the electric revolution.
Well, not exactly, because the car I’ve been using these last three months is a plug-in hybrid – it runs on both a battery and a petrol engine. I had been mulling over getting a “green” vehicle for some time now, but cost was always an issue.
My dream car is the Tesla, but you can only get these in Malaysia via “grey” importers and even then they will probably be second-hand units. With prices for the Tesla Model S starting at RM600,000, they are priced way beyond what I can afford.
Hence, my next move was to get a semi-electric car. In this region, you have two options – either a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid.
I chose the latter, because the former only gives you 2km on a purely electric charge, while I now get 32km on a full charge for my car. It now takes me an average of 18-20 days before I need to top up my petrol tank. My petrol bill is now around RM120 a month as opposed to RM450+ using my previous car.
These are considerable savings, but the other factor that made me switch was the government’s incentive of a green rebate – in my case, a cool RM130,000. I have absolutely no regrets about making the switch. In fact, my car has become an object of curiosity at the apartment I live in since I started charging it every night.
I was fortunate that my apartment’s management board agreed to install a three point plug at the carpark, allowing me to charge the car for the recommended seven hours every night. But this in turn has led me to fielding questions from my neighbours about driving a hybrid car. I’d like to think that my positive reviews may get them on the road to buying their own electric vehicles eventually.
Because the future is going to be electric. That is inevitable.
I mentioned Tesla earlier and its visionary CEO Elon Musk has just released the Tesla Model 3 in the United States. Aimed at bringing the electric car to the mass market, it retails for US$35,000 (RM150,000) and has already secured an astounding 500,000 pre-orders!
Were Tesla to produce and sell 500,000 cars a year, the firm would likely outsell the BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus brands in the United States, but production challenges will likely mean that new buyers will only get their cars at the end of 2018. And don’t expect Malaysian buyers to get their hands on the Model 3 any sooner because the company is only producing left-hand drive models initially.
But we may see some other electric cars on our shores even before the new Teslas. There is a big hybrid push in Europe, and companies like Volvo have already indicated that they will stop assembly of petrol and diesel vehicles in favour of electric and hybrid cars from 2019. Volvo’s target is to sell one million electric vehicles – either hybrids or those powered solely by battery – by 2025.
It will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021 – three Volvos and two from Polestar, its high-performance car arm. Let’s hope that we get to see them on Malaysian roads too.
There are already a number of hybrid and plug-in hybrid car brands on our road. The challenge for the Government is to continue to encourage and provide tax rebates for these green vehicles without jeopardising the entire automotive tax structure.
The challenge for the private sector, though, is to provide more charging points for these vehicles, be it in shopping malls or as standalone charging stations. Currently there are just too few of these.
The closest one to me is at Jaya One, and the mall should be praised for not only having a dedicated charging station, but also dedicated parking lots for green vehicles. More shopping complexes should follow suit.
As more and more Malaysians switch to hybrid or electric technology, where will that leave petrol stations? Petrol-powered vehicles will still be around for the foreseeable future, but just like the black-and-white television, their days appear numbered.