KUALA LUMPUR: The electric vehicle (EV) competition is on with Sime Darby Bhd introducing four new models into the market this year.

       Sime Darby chief executive officer Datuk Jeffri Salim Davidson reckoned that the EV adoption in the countries to accelerate in line with the government push, although there are infrastructure-related issues such as lack of charging points.

       “EV is here to stay. We have seen very strong demand for EVs in China and Europe.

       “The issues surrounding climate change and government policies will drive the demand growth and accelerate EV adoption.

       “In Malaysia, so far we have received strong demand for the BMW iX model,” he told reporters after its second quarter financial year 2022 results announcement on Wednesday.

       Sime Darby chief financial officer Mustamir Mohamad said the four EV cars will be complete built-up (CBU) models, which refers to cars that are assembled in a foreign country.

       The four models are BMW 3 Series Electric, BMW iX, BMW i4 and Volvo VC40 BEV.

       He said that the group has no plan yet to assemble EV cars in Malaysia for now, as it will wait for the market demand before assembling them in Malaysia.

       Jeffri noted that the group is taking a proactive approach to ramp up the EV ecosystem including looking into becoming a charging stations operator.

       “We are already in the business of supplying charging stations through our subsidiaries. We are hoping to get property developers to install charging stations at their projects.

       “In addition, we are looking at becoming a charging stations operator, like the petrol stations, throughout the country.

       “We are not quite sure about the economics of that. We are looking to see if it makes sense for us to get involved in that game,” he said.