For those of you who are hoping for an affordable electric vehicle (EV), then good new as the national carmaker Proton Holdings Berhad is planning to commercialize their EVs in 2013.
Datuk Zainuddin Che Din, the Director of Proton said that they are now in the testing stages and come 2013, they will offer them to the mass market.
He said that so far, the company had already delivered 3 Proton Saga EVs and 5 of their MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) Exora Range Extended EV to various government ministries for testing. This he said will continue to expand where they are looking to roll out more units that include 200 more Range Extenders and 150 Sagas to the government and that will be achieved by the end of 2012. On how much the EVs will cost once they are commercialized, he said that the it will be competitive and one can expect them to start from RM70k for the Saga EV while the Exora Range Extender would be around RM100k.
This, he said will be cheaper than other full EVs in the country but before that can be done, there is a need to build charging centers around the country. This is where Proton is currently working on a system to build this infrastructure to cater and accommodate the customers in this segment when the car is officially launched. Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and major areas in Kuala Lumpur will be locations where the charging stations will be placed with 100 to 150 stations planned for each of these areas.
