Before 2022, it was uncertain whether Tesla would officially come to Malaysia. While private importers had brought in some of its EVs, the market did not seem right without any incentives to bring down the prices of EVs.
Then the government decided to tax-exempt EVs and suddenly, everything changed. It must have caught the attention of the world’s bestselling EV brand as within a year, it made plans to enter the market and launched in July this year. Since then, it has been busy setting itself up even though it has not delivered a single car.
Besides the ongoing program to set up the Tesla Supercharger network on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Tesla has now officially opened its Tesla Centre in Cyberjaya. Tesla’s business model uses online sales which it directly manages, so there are no dealer showrooms. However, what the company does is to set up an Experience Centre where customers view its models.
At a later date, the two-storey facility’s role will be expanded to provide delivery and aftersales support to owners. As the first cars are said to be delivered before the end of this year, it is likely that this second phase will be completed before 2024.
Speaking at the opening ceremony today, MITI minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, said that Tesla’s direct presence in the country will spur Malaysia’s New Industrial Master Plan 2030’s missions to rapidly enable our manufacturing industry to tech up, and push for net zero carbon emissions.
“More importantly, we are confident that the establishment of Tesla’s sales, aftersales support, as well as leading battery and supercharging technologies in Malaysia will facilitate knowledge transfer, help elevate our SMEs capabilities that feed into the Tesla ecosystem, and create more high-skilled, better-paying jobs for our people,” he said.
On its part, the Malaysian government will promote low-carbon mobility and support the EV industry by exempting EV purchasers from import and excise duties. At the moment, the exemption runs till the end of 2025 for EVs imported CBU (completely built up). For those companies that decide to assemble their EVs locally, the exemption will continue till December 31, 2027.
However, it seems unlikely that Tesla will assemble its products here as it has set up Gigafactories which use very advanced manufacturing methods for speed. The way the cars are designed would not make them suitable for low-volume assembly.
Tesla currently has four Gigafactories making its vehicles – two in the USA, one in Germany and one in China. The combined production capacity of the four is over 1.43 million units. The Gigafactories were originally supposed to be for battery production but switched to a more diverse role of also making cars. Two other Gigafactories in America make batteries and motors.
Nevertheless, with the opening of the centre and other developments to come, Tesla says it reiterates the company’s commitment to accelerating Malaysia’s transition to sustainable energy.