Petronas Working With Mercedes-Benz For Fast EV Chargers

KUALA LUMPUR: In 6 months’ time PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad and JomCharge will deploy DC Fast EV chargers at 5 strategically located PETRONAS stations along two major highways. However, before that, they will need to address a big issue that continues to escalate at electric vehicle charging bays at Petronas stations right now.

The above picture explains it very well. This issue has been an ongoing problem from the early days at all electric vehicle charging bays at the various petrol stations, especially stations along the North South highway and also inner city stations where motorcyclists as well petrol and diesel vehicle owners who park as they please to use the petrol station shops, bathroom facilities or visit the fast food restaurants connected to the stations.

Electric (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drivers have for years complained about this issue and it is very difficult to get the motorcycle riders and car drivers to come out and move their vehicles, even when they can see an EV or PHEV owner looking to use the charging bay.

So, now with the recent signing of this agreement, before even starting work, there should be a solution in sight to prevent this from happening, or else, the cost of the DC Fast EV chargers will be wasted from lack of use.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mercedes-Benz Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Mercedes-Benz) and EV Connection Sdn Bhd (EV Connection), the operator of JomCharge network in Malaysia was signed earlier this week.

The strategic partnership aims to address EV drivers’ pain point of insufficient fast chargers in Malaysia. Under this collaboration, PDB plans to strategically install the fast chargers at five PETRONAS stations in the pilot phase, to enable end-to-end coverage between North-South Expressway and part of East-Coast Expressway.

Through this partnership, fast chargers will be available at strategic locations leveraging our wide network of PETRONAS stations, making customers’ life simpler and better. We view this investment in EV charging facilities a necessary step towards promoting the adoption of EVs in Malaysia,” he added.

This tripartite collaboration is also aligned with PDB’s future-proof strategy given the inevitable shift to cleaner mobility in the future.

Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, Michael Jopp said, “2022 marks the beginning of our Mercedes-EQ model offensive strategy. Mercedes-Benz Malaysia will be introducing a range of our premium all-electric models to define the future of mobility.

This is in line with Mercedes-Benz’s global strategy to go all-electric by the end of the decade where market conditions allow. Therefore, we are fully committed to invest in our local infrastructure together with PDB and EVC to encourage EV adoption amongst the Malaysian drivers.

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