1. Questions

Malaysia’s Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint 2021–2030 identifies electric vehicles (EVs) as central to decarbonising the transport sector (Ministry of Transport Malaysia 2021). Following import duty exemptions on fully electric vehicles in 2022, EV car registrations grew at an unprecedented pace. Despite this, systematic quantitative analysis of national-scale JPJ registration data remains limited. This study analyses monthly and annual electric car registration data from 2020 to 2025 to address three questions:

  1. What is the overall trajectory and CAGR of electric car registrations in Malaysia from 2020 to 2025?

  2. What structural changes in growth occurred across sub-periods, and what policy drivers are associated with these shifts?

  3. What is the geographic distribution of EV registrations across Malaysian states, and which brands and models are driving adoption?

We hypothesise that a clear inflection point exists in 2022 coinciding with policy intervention, and that geographic concentration in high-income urban states persists throughout the study period.

2. Methods

This study uses two datasets from the data.gov.my open data portal, maintained by the Road Transport Department of Malaysia (JPJ). The first, registrations_type_fuel.csv, provides monthly vehicle registration counts disaggregated by fuel type and vehicle type, covering January 2000 to April 2026 (Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan 2026b). For trend analysis, only records with vehicle_type = ‘car’ and fuel = ‘electric’ are used, ensuring consistency with the brand and model analysis. The second, cars_2026.csv, is a transaction-level dataset of individual car registrations for January to April 2026, containing fields for manufacturer, model, fuel type, and state (Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan 2026a). The registration trend dataset (2020–2025) records 83,360 electric car registrations over the study period. The second dataset provides granular brand, model, and state detail for the most recent market composition.

All registration counts refer to vehicles newly registered in each period, not the cumulative stock of EVs on the road. Annual newly registered EV car counts and market share were computed by aggregating monthly car-only counts. Year-on-year (YoY) growth was calculated from 2021 onward. The CAGR over the full study period was computed as:

\[\text{CAGR} = \left(\frac{EV_{2025}}{EV_{2020}}\right)^{1/5} - 1 = \left(\frac{44{,}813}{71}\right)^{0.2} - 1 = 263.1\%\]

Monthly shares were derived by dividing monthly newly registered electric car counts by monthly total car registrations. No survey data, imputation, or modelling was applied; this study is descriptive and relies exclusively on administrative registration records. Registration data include fleet, corporate, and private vehicles, which are not distinguished in the dataset.

3. Findings

3.1 Annual Electric Car Registration Trend (2020–2025)

Newly registered electric cars grew from 71 units in 2020 to 44,813 units in 2025, a 631-fold increase over five years (see Table 1). The CAGR of 263.1% reflects the rapid pace of this transition. The share of newly registered cars that are electric rose from 0.01% in 2020 to 5.15% in 2025, surpassing the 1% threshold for the first time in 2023.

Table 1.Newly Registered Electric Cars and Market Share in Malaysia (2020–2025). Source: JPJ via data.gov.my (registrations_type_fuel.csv, vehicle_type = car). YoY = year-on-year. CAGR (2020–2025) = 263.1%.
Year EV Cars Total Cars EV Share (%) YoY Growth (%)
2020 71 552,359 0.01 N/A
2021 257 530,057 0.05 \(+\)262.0
2022 3,129 744,762 0.42 \(+\)1,117.5
2023 13,301 832,347 1.60 \(+\)325.1
2024 21,789 856,292 2.54 \(+\)63.8
2025 44,813 870,327 5.15 \(+\)105.7

3.2 Growth Dynamics and Policy Context

Newly registered EV car counts were minimal in 2020 and 2021 (71 and 257 units respectively). Growth accelerated markedly in 2022, coinciding with the government’s announcement of duty exemptions for CBU EVs under Budget 2022 (Ministry of Finance Malaysia 2022) and the publication of the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint (Ministry of Transport Malaysia 2021); registrations rose 1,117.5% to 3,129 units. A further 325.1% increase to 13,301 units followed in 2023. Growth moderated in 2024 (63.8%) before re-accelerating in 2025 (105.7%), coinciding with the entry of mass-market Chinese brands and the launch of the locally-assembled Proton e.MAS series. By December 2025, monthly newly registered electric cars reached 8,123 units, an EV car share of 8.38%.

3.3 Monthly EV Car Share in 2025

Monthly EV car market share in 2025 ranged from 3.14% in January to 8.38% in December, with a clear upward trend (see Table 2). The Q4 2025 acceleration, with shares of 5.34%, 6.96%, and 8.38% in October, November, and December respectively, corresponds to typical year-end purchasing patterns.

Table 2.Newly Registered Electric Cars and Market Share by Month, 2025. Source: JPJ via data.gov.my (registrations_type_fuel.csv, vehicle_type = car).
Month EV Cars Total Cars EV Share (%)
Jan 2025 1,691 53,930 3.14
Feb 2025 2,160 67,327 3.21
Mar 2025 2,976 77,121 3.86
Apr 2025 2,892 65,200 4.44
May 2025 4,152 74,393 5.58
Jun 2025 3,272 58,858 5.56
Jul 2025 2,792 75,663 3.69
Aug 2025 3,461 78,978 4.38
Sep 2025 3,532 62,598 5.64
Oct 2025 4,345 81,413 5.34
Nov 2025 5,417 77,876 6.96
Dec 2025 8,123 96,970 8.38

3.4 Brand and Model Composition

JPJ transaction records for January to April 2026 provide the most granular available breakdown of make, model, and state (see Table 3). Proton leads with 9,863 registrations, of which the e.MAS 5 accounts for 8,473 units; the e.MAS 5 is a locally-assembled SUV developed with Geely. BYD ranks second with 3,674 registrations, followed by Chery (1,593) and Zeekr (1,214). Proton and Chinese-origin brands jointly account for over 90% of the top-10 registrations, consistent with the regional pattern of Chinese manufacturers holding large EV market shares across Southeast Asia (World Bank 2024). TQ Wuling refers to the registered distributor name for Wuling vehicles in the JPJ dataset.

Table 3.Top 10 EV Manufacturers by Registration Count (January–April 2026, not annualised). Source: JPJ via data.gov.my (cars_2026.csv).
Rank Manufacturer Registrations Origin Top Model
1 Proton 9,863 Malaysia e.MAS 5 (8,473)
2 BYD 3,674 China Atto 3 (1,777)
3 Chery 1,593 China iCaur V23 (972)
4 Zeekr 1,214 China 7X (999)
5 Tesla 830 USA Model 3 (459)
6 MG 579 China MG4 (414)
7 Leapmotor 429 China C10 (429)
8 Xpeng 394 China G6 (394)
9 TQ Wuling 241 China Air ev (241)
10 Volvo 217 Sweden EX30 (217)

3.5 Geographic Distribution

Based on January to April 2026 registration data, EV car penetration by state ranges from 16.9% in Melaka to 2.2% in Sabah. Penetration is highest in Melaka (16.9% of state car registrations), Pulau Pinang (15.6%), Selangor (12.6%), Pahang (12.1%), Kuala Lumpur (11.8%), and Negeri Sembilan (11.1%). The elevated figure for Melaka corresponds to a relatively small total car market (694 registrations in the period). Penetration is lowest in Sabah (2.2%), Sarawak (4.6%), and Terengganu (5.2%). Malaysia’s 5.15% EV car market share in 2025 exceeds Thailand’s 3.5% and Indonesia’s 0.8% recorded in 2023 (International Energy Agency 2024), though direct comparison is limited by the difference in reporting years.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Road Transport Department of Malaysia (JPJ) and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) for making vehicle registration data publicly accessible through the data.gov.my portal. The authors acknowledge Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) for providing financial support toward the publication of this article. The authors used Claude (Anthropic) to assist language editing. All content was reviewed and verified by the authors.