The Ministry of Energy, Green Energy and Water is all for the development of the electric vehicle (EV) industry to reduce environmental pollution caused by vehicles driven by fossil fuel.
Its minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin said his ministry encouraged the development of EV in the country and RM220.5 million had been granted to Proton to carry out research and studies on it.
“In fact several units are now on trial and expected to be available in the market by end of next or latest by middle of 2013,” he said.
Chin told reporters this at a media conference after attending a dialogue session with the staff and students of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) here yesterday.
The development of EV was necessary since transportation was indisputably one of the biggest polluters in the country.
He was unsure of the EV prices except to say that they would depend on the models and sizes, with the smallest below RM100,000 per unit.
“On the marketing aspect, we leave it to Proton to decide but since other motor companies, such as Toyota and Honda, will also bring EV into our market, we believe Proton should be able to offer more competitive prices,” Chin said.
The development of EV was in line with the government’s effort to go green.
In view of the support given by Unimas in promoting and developing green technology, Chin said he would discuss with Proton to provide the university with a unit of EV at least.
Earlier, he presented a RM130,000 grant to Unimas to facilitate development in the fields of energy, green technology and rainwater harvesting under the 1IPTA 1Minister programme.
The grant was received by Unimas deputy vice-chancellor for students’ affairs and alumni, Professor Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman.
