KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6— Automotive logistics company Arca Corporation became among the first to board Malaysia’s energy efficient vehicles (EEV) bandwagon, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could see it assembling electric buses locally as soon as 2016.
The company’s executive chairman, Datuk Che Azizuddin Che Ismail, said it will cost about RM200 million to build the infrastructure as well as produce the prototypes for the electric buses, expected to be ready in the first quarter of next year.
Che Azizuddin said the first batch of buses is expected to be deployed in Putrajaya and Pulau Langkawi.
“Once we can get it up and running, Greater KL will be another area that we want to operate in,” he told reporters here after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Malaysia Automotive Institute, its Australian counterpart AutoCRC Ltd, and Swinburne University of Technology, which is developing the technology for the electric buses.
Che Azizuddin said the company will then be targeting the Jakarta market in Indonesia and after that, China.
When asked what would be the targeted production volume, he said it has to be “economically driven”.
Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad, who witnessed the signing, said he hopes that the production of the new line of electric buses will begin in two years’ time.
Last month, Putrajaya unveiled a series of new incentives to draw more foreign and domestic producers of EEVs and hybrid cars in its bid to restore Malaysia’s status as Southeast Asia’s automotive hub.
Arca is expected to benefit from the government’s RM2 billion financial aid for EEV manufacturers over the next six years, with RM 1.89 billion as a soft loan and RM175 million in grants for human capital and Bumiputera development.
