KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Rimbawatch, a deforestation watchdog, claimed today that several automobile manufacturers are misleading consumers about their electrical vehicles producing zero emissions.

Carbon emission rate from EV use in Malaysia would still be significantly high because of the country’s heavy reliance on coal for most of its electricity, the group argued. Over half of the power produced by Tenaga Nasional Berhad is coal, according to 2021 data. Gas accounts for 34.4 per cent. Only 6.4 per cent of TNB’s power is sourced from renewable energy.

Unless power producers make that transition to cleaner energy quick, expanding EV ownership will do little to offset the impact of widespread petrol-powered car usage, it said in a statement.

"RimbaWatch is concerned at the spate of greenwashing surrounding the promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) in Malaysia as ‘zero-emission’, which could mislead consumers into believing that they have achieved net-zero personal mobility,” the group said.

With an energy mix that is over 90 per cent derived from fossil fuels, the emissions factor for peninsular Malaysia’s electricity grid is 0.55kg carbon dioxide (CO2) per kWh. Rimbawatch said using this data, it conducted its own analysis to calculate how much certain EVs emit carbon based on how much electricity is used per kilometre.

A Mini Cooper SE, for example, uses 0.083kg CO2 per kilometre. A BYD Atto 3 would use up to 0.086kg CO2 per kilometre while a Mercedes-Benz EQS uses up 0.086kg CO2 per kilometre. The BMW iX1, a luxury SUV, produces up to 0.095kg CO2 per kilometre.

Comparatively, the amount of CO2 emitted by the petrol-powered Perodua MyVi is about 0.1kg per kilometre.

These models were advertised by manufacturers as having "zero emission”, which is why they were singled out, Rimbawatch said. In a year, all the EV models listed would have emitted up to 2 tonnes of CO2, according to the group’s estimation.

The group said manufacturers should disclose the emissions per km of their EV products based on the emission factor of Peninsular Malaysia’s electricity grid at a given time. It’s also asking car makers to report the amount of emissions from the production of each vehicle model, for both electric and petrol-powered products.

‘EV not a silver bullet’

Putrajaya has set a target to make the country "carbon-neutral” by 2050. Under the Anwar administration, policymakers have sought to widen EV use as one of the ways to cut back emissions.

Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad was reported saying in March that the government wants to have at least 1.4 million EVs on the road by 2040, and is now pushing to help build the necessary infrastructures to support the shift towards electrification.

The move has gotten mixed reception. Car makers were supportive but environmentalists said that while EVs can help offset carbon emissions, the impact is relatively small. The better goal, they argued, would be to shift towards electric-powered public transport.

"RimbaWatch in general supports the expansion of EV ownership in Malaysia. It is a fact that most EVs would, over their lifetime, reduce emissions per kilometer compared to regular vehicles,” the group said.

"However, EVs are not a silver bullet for climate change,” it added, citing TNB’s targets to achieve only a 35 per cent reduction in emissions by 2035 and reduce coal capacity by 50 per cent by 2050.

The group said unless these targets improve, emissions from the grid "will remain for the foreseeable future”.

Critics also said EVs will unlikely solve traffic congestion problems, which some have described as a "crisis-level”. EV ownership could also worsen low-ridership of public transport, lead to inaccessible car-centric city design, or the shifting of emissions from the exhaust pipe to the power plant.

"Further, the above analysis does not take into account the higher emissions related to the manufacturing of an EV over a regular vehicle and their other associated environmental impacts,” Rimbawatch said.

"The fact remains that emissions from personal mobility, both EVs and petrol, remain a serious issue that is not being sufficiently addressed.”