Rapid Bus EV trials: 1,600 electric buses at up to RM1.5m each by 2031

Oct 7

5 min read

By Catherine Teo · Value & Ownership columnist · 07 Oct 2026

Rapid Bus EV trials: 1,600 electric buses at up to RM1.5m each by 2031

The trial is the cheap part. At the minister's own price estimate, the full Rapid Bus plan costs up to RM2.4 billion for the buses alone. The government has not stated its budget.

At a glance

		Source
Electric bus price	RM1.2 million to RM1.5 million per bus (estimate)	Malay Mail, Transport Minister Anthony Loke
Phase 1	250 buses: 175 Rapid KL, 75 Rapid Penang	Malay Mail
Full plan	1,600 electric buses, 2026 to 2031	Malay Mail
Buses on trial	Foton (5 on Sunway BRT, one 12-metre in Penang), Golden Dragon 8.25-metre (Penang)	SoyaCincau
Full plan cost, buses only	RM1.92 billion to RM2.4 billion	Our arithmetic

TL;DR

Rapid Bus now tests Foton and Golden Dragon electric buses on Rapid KL and Rapid Penang routes, SoyaCincau reports.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke puts the electric bus price at RM1.2 million to RM1.5 million per unit, Malay Mail reports. He gave no diesel bus price.
On our arithmetic, 1,600 buses cost RM1.92 billion to RM2.4 billion. The tender is still open, so the real figure is not public.

What is the electric bus price in Malaysia, and who pays for the Rapid Bus switch? The minister's estimate is RM1.2 million to RM1.5 million per bus, and the buyer is the government. Looking strictly at the numbers, the trials tell us little about cost. The bill sits in a tender that is still closed.

Infographic: Rapid Bus EV trials: 1,600 electric buses at up to RM1.5m each by 2031

What is Rapid Bus testing, and where?

SoyaCincau reports that Rapid Bus, a Prasarana Malaysia subsidiary, started electric bus tests on two networks. The Sunway BRT line is the Klang Valley test bed, with five Foton units. Rapid Bus checks energy use, battery performance, range, charging, ride quality and cabin noise. In Penang, two buses from two makers ran on public roads on 6 and 7 October only.

Bus	Length	Network	Status, Oct 2026
Foton electric bus	12 metres (Penang unit)	Sunway BRT (5 units), Rapid Penang	Trial
Golden Dragon electric bus	8.25 metres	Rapid Penang	Two-day road test
BYD electric bus	Not stated	Sunway BRT	In service since 2015
New diesel bus	8.9 metres	Rapid Penang	70 bought in 2026, the last diesel batch

The first three rows are from SoyaCincau. The diesel row is from Malay Mail. The trial reports give no battery size, no range and no price for any one model. SoyaCincau also says it is not clear if the Foton buses will replace the BYD buses on the Sunway BRT.

Thinking about an EV? Drive one for a few days before you buy.

What is the electric bus price in Malaysia?

Malay Mail reports the estimate Loke gave in George Town on 12 January: RM1.2 million to RM1.5 million per electric bus. He said electric buses generally cost more than diesel buses. He also said the government held back the total allocation because the tender was still in progress. He did not give a diesel price, so the extra cost of going electric is unknown.

Plan	Buses	At RM1.2 million	At RM1.5 million
Phase 1 (175 Rapid KL, 75 Rapid Penang)	250	RM300 million	RM375 million
Rapid Penang target by 2027	240	RM288 million	RM360 million
Full plan, 2026 to 2031	1,600	RM1.92 billion	RM2.4 billion

The costs are our arithmetic: 1,600 x RM1.5 million = RM2.4 billion. They cover the buses only. Prasarana also builds chargers at Rapid Penang depots (Malay Mail), and Rapid Bus plans maintenance facilities and staff training (SoyaCincau). Neither source puts a price on those.

For scale, take the bus stop budget. Malay Mail puts it at about RM5 million in federal money, of which Penang gets RM1.5 million. At Loke's price, RM5 million buys three to four electric buses (our arithmetic: RM5 million / RM1.5 million = 3.3).

Does the Penang plan replace the whole fleet?

Malay Mail reports that Rapid Penang runs 310 buses, and most are more than 10 years old. In 2026 it bought 70 diesel buses, which Loke called the final diesel batch. After that, every replacement is electric, with a target of 240 electric buses in two phases by 2027.

The figures fit together exactly. On our arithmetic, 240 electric + 70 diesel = 310, the size of the present fleet. Loke did not say that the plan replaces every bus, but the sum matches. Once both phases arrive, 240 / 310 = 77% of that fleet is electric.

The diesel batch has a long tail. If the 70 new diesel buses serve as long as the present fleet (more than 10 years), they stay on the road until about 2036. The Rapid Bus target, shown at IGEM 2023 per SoyaCincau, is a fully electric fleet by 2037. So the last diesel buses reach that age about one year before the target date.

Is the electric bus rollout on schedule?

The sources do not agree on the start. In January, Loke said the first 250 buses would arrive from March 2026 to March 2027. He said Penang service would start from May 2026 (Malay Mail). In October, SoyaCincau reports a two-day road test in Penang and a staged rollout of the first 75 units up to March 2027. The March 2027 end date is the same in both. The May 2026 start does not appear in the October report, and neither source explains the gap.

The long-range targets also use two different measures. The 2023 target is a share: 30% electric by 2030. The 2026 plan is a count: 1,600 buses by 2031. Neither source gives the total Rapid Bus fleet, so we cannot check if 1,600 buses meets the 30% share.

Who pays, and what is the trade-off?

The government pays, from an allocation it has not announced. Loke links the switch to lower carbon emissions and modern public transport. The Rapid Bus CEO, Syahrul Azmir Ahmad Zaki, puts passenger safety and comfort first (SoyaCincau). On the cost side, three numbers are missing: the diesel bus price, the tender result and the cost of depots and chargers.

Catherine's take

A trial is the cheapest stage of any fleet deal, and that is the stage on show. Looking strictly at the numbers, the minister gave the price of one electric bus. He held back the rest: no diesel price, no allocation, no depot cost. At RM1.2 million to RM1.5 million a bus, 1,600 buses is a RM1.92 billion to RM2.4 billion purchase on our arithmetic. The taxpayer carries that bill, plus a premium over diesel that nobody has stated. Penang's sums are tidy: 240 electric and 70 diesel make 310. The weak point is 70 diesel buses bought in the same year the switch began.

When the tender closes, read one number first: the price per bus against RM1.5 million. The rest is a press photo.