6,029 EVs in September: one Proton explains Malaysia's 31.7% dip

Oct 10

5 min read

By Arjun Nair · Policy & Industry columnist · 10 Oct 2026

6,029 EVs in September: one Proton explains Malaysia's 31.7% dip

Malaysia's EV registrations fell from the August record, but one hatchback explains most of the fall, while charge points still trail the cars.

At a glance

		Source
EVs registered, Sep	6,029	SoyaCincau (JPJ data)
EV share of all new vehicles	8.12%	SoyaCincau (JPJ data)
Change vs Sep 2025	+70.7%	SoyaCincau (JPJ data)
EVs registered, Jan to Sep	53,537	SoyaCincau (JPJ data)
Licensed charge points, Peninsular (Jul)	6,178	SoyaCincau (Energy Commission)

TL;DR

JPJ data, as read by SoyaCincau, puts September 2026 at 6,029 new EVs: 8.12% of the month's new vehicles, and 70.7% above September 2025.
The total is 31.7% below the August record of 8,833. The Proton e.MAS 5 alone explains 2,280 of the 2,804 lost units (our arithmetic below).
This year's EV count is already 53,537, against a July tally of 6,178 licensed charge points for the whole Peninsula.

EV registrations in Malaysia fell to 6,029 in September 2026, 31.7% below the August record. So, is the EV boom over already? No. Most of the drop is one car, and the real policy problem sits somewhere else.

Infographic: 6,029 EVs in September: one Proton explains Malaysia's 31.7% dip

How many EV registrations did Malaysia record in September 2026?

SoyaCincau's report on the JPJ data gives the numbers. JPJ is the Road Transport Department, so these are new vehicles that got a number plate, not orders. Malaysia registered 74,259 new vehicles in September, and EVs took 6,029 of them, or 8.12%. The industry calls the whole-market figure TIV (total industry volume).

Measure	August 2026	September 2026
All new vehicles (TIV)	77,276	74,259
EVs	8,833	6,029
EV share of TIV	11.43%	8.12%
Proton e.MAS 5	4,770	2,490
All other EVs	4,063	3,539

Source: SoyaCincau, 11 Sep 2026 and 10 Oct 2026, from JPJ data. "All other EVs" is our arithmetic (EVs minus e.MAS 5).

Zoom out and the year still points up. Nine months of 2026 give 53,537 EVs on SoyaCincau's count, nearly twice (98.8% more than) the same stretch of 2025. All of 2025 gave 44,813, a mark this year cleared by the end of September. Across the nine months, 8.35% of TIV was electric.

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Why did EV registrations fall 31.7% in September?

Here is the surprising part: one model made most of the drop. Our arithmetic: 8,833 - 6,029 = 2,804 fewer EVs. The Proton e.MAS 5 went from 4,770 to 2,490, which is 2,280 fewer. So 2,280 / 2,804 = 81% of the fall is that one hatchback.

Take the e.MAS 5 out and the picture is calmer. All other EVs went from 4,063 to 3,539, a fall of 12.9%. The whole market also shrank, from 77,276 to 74,259 vehicles, a fall of 3.9%. So the rest of the EV market slowed more than the market around it, but it did not collapse.

Neither SoyaCincau report gives a reason for the August record or the drop after it. The data shows what happened, not why. I will not invent a cause.

Last year gives one more clue. SoyaCincau's August report puts August 2025 at 3,461 EVs, and September 2025 came in at 3,532. So September is not a weak month by habit. The August 2026 peak is the unusual number.

Who wins and who loses?

Proton wins on volume. Over nine months, the e.MAS brand has 24,857 EVs on SoyaCincau's count, close to half (46.4%) of every EV registered. Even in a soft month, the e.MAS 5 took 41.3% of all EVs. Behind it in September sat the e.MAS 7 on 526, then Tesla's Model Y on 378. Perodua's QV-E stays a small player: 86 in September against 56 the month before.

Petrol hybrids also win. SoyaCincau reports 5,447 petrol hybrid registrations in September, up 127.15% on a year earlier. So the EV is not the only new powertrain that grows fast.

The people who lose are EV owners who depend on public charging. That is the policy question in this data.

Can Malaysia's charge points keep up with EV registrations?

The rule in plain words: a 2021 plan, the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint, asked for 10,000 public charge points by 2025. We did not get there, SoyaCincau reports. By July 2026, the Peninsular count on the Energy Commission list was 6,178 licensed charge points. Deputy Minister Sim Tze Tzin told Parliament the new target is 30,000 by 2030.

Our arithmetic gives a rough ratio. EV registrations for 2025 and for January to September 2026 add up to 44,813 + 53,537 = 98,350. Divide that by 6,178 charge points and you get about 16 EVs per charge point. This number is soft at both ends. It leaves out EVs from before 2025, and it counts cars from Sabah and Sarawak but only Peninsular charge points.

The build pace is the harder part. SoyaCincau calculates that operators must add at least 467 charge points a month from August 2026 to reach 30,000. For January to May 2026, the same writer works backwards from new licences and lands near 156 a month, and calls that a rough guess. That is about one third of the pace the target needs.

History says be careful. SoyaCincau's July piece shows the yearly EV count up by 63.71% in 2024, and then by 105.7% in 2025, more than double. Buyers moved faster than the plan, and the 2025 charge point target still slipped.

Highways show the gap most clearly. SoyaCincau counts 148 DC charging points along our highways. It adds that a few of those sites sit finished but dark, two years on. Its Budget 2027 report finds a highway line in the written speech: next year, LLM (the Malaysian Highway Authority) plans 50 stations. By 2030, LLM wants 500 highway charging points.

What should you watch next?

First, the October JPJ figures. SoyaCincau published the August data on 11 September and the September data on 10 October, so the next set should come around mid-November. If the e.MAS 5 recovers, September was a pause. If all other EVs fall again, the slowdown is wider.

Second, the highway sites. SoyaCincau reports that TNB's Rawang R&R northbound charger went live on 28 September 2026, after a first announcement in early 2023. Terra ChargEV's Seremban R&R site is due in early 2027. Then watch the LLM stations, the first real test of the 2030 target. For how public charging works day to day, our Tesla charging guide for Malaysia is a plain starting point.

Arjun's take

I have watched many targets come and go. The 2025 charge point target came in 2021, and Malaysians bought EVs faster than the plan expected. Now the target is three times bigger, and by SoyaCincau's numbers the build pace is a third of what it needs. What worries me more is the charger that stands finished and switched off for two years. A charger that is built but not on is a promise, not a plug, lah. One soft month of e.MAS 5 registrations is not a crisis. At the end of the day, the cars will come, so the question is whether the plugs follow, on the balik kampung highway too. Drive well, and plan your charging stops before you leave.