Are Malaysians switching to EVs?
Electric cars hit 6% of new registrations, double a year earlier. Petrol still rules.
More every month, but off a small base. In May 2026, 8,287 of the 137,561 vehicles newly registered in Malaysia were fully electric, 6.0%, up from 2.7% a year earlier. Add hybrids and roughly 1 in 10 new vehicles is now electrified. Petrol still powers about 85%.
Electric share of new registrations, monthly
Fully-electric vehicles as a share of all new registrations. The trend is up and to the right, from under 3% to 6%, with the usual monthly wobble.
New registrations by fuel type (May 2026)
Petrol still dominates at about 85%. Electric has overtaken hybrid, and both are now bigger than plain diesel.
What it means
- Electric vehicles hit 6.0% of new registrations in May 2026, up from 2.7% a year earlier, the EV share has doubled in twelve months.
- Electric has overtaken hybrid (3.7%) and is now well ahead of plain diesel, a real shift in what Malaysians drive off the lot.
- But petrol still rules at about 85%. The switch is real but early; the vast majority of new cars still burn fuel.
- Counting hybrids too, roughly 1 in 10 new vehicles is now electrified.
- Monthly numbers wobble (incentive deadlines, model launches, festive timing), so watch the trend, not any single month.
- Publisher
- Road Transport Department (JPJ), via data.gov.my · Government, vehicle registration authority, open data
- Document
- Monthly vehicle registrations by vehicle and fuel type
- Published
- 2026
- Source link
- https://data.gov.my/data-catalogue/registrations_type_fuel
- Retrieved
- 2026-07-06
- Coverage
- Newly registered vehicles by fuel type, from JPJ. 'Electric' means battery EVs; 'hybrid' includes petrol-electric hybrids; 'green diesel' is biodiesel-blend. Share is fully-electric registrations divided by all registrations that month.
Frequently asked
What percentage of new cars in Malaysia are electric?
About 6.0% of vehicles newly registered in May 2026 were fully electric (8,287 of 137,561), up from 2.7% a year earlier, according to Road Transport Department (JPJ) data on data.gov.my.
Is EV adoption growing in Malaysia?
Yes. The fully-electric share of new registrations roughly doubled over the year to May 2026, from under 3% to 6%. Hybrids are rising too.
What do most Malaysians still drive?
Petrol. It made up about 85% of new registrations in May 2026. Electric and hybrid together are around 10%.
Where does this EV data come from?
From the Road Transport Department (JPJ), published as official open data on data.gov.my, monthly vehicle registrations by fuel type.
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