KUALA LUMPUR: A new National Automotive Policy (NAP 2020), formulated to elevate Malaysia’s automotive industry to the next phase of industrial competitiveness, is all set to be unveiled on Friday.
The unveiling of the details of the much-awaited policy will guide industry players in facing future demands of global automotive and mobility trends, at least for the next 10 years (2020-2030).
Attention will be on how the vision, with its enhanced customised incentives and regulatory frameworks, helps the domestic automotive sector grow more sustainably in the changing landscape of mobility within the global markets
The global automotive industry is facing a paradigm shift in terms of product and drivetrain design.
Change is inevitable; automotive manufacturers across the world are under pressure to ensure quick development of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids to manage emissions levels.
As such the NAP 2020 is expected to delve deeper into green technology sustainability in a bid to lower emissions levels and reduce the carbon footprint.
The enhanced NAP is also expected to focus heavily on resources, creation of new businesses and job opportunities, as well as the implementation of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) in the era of digital industrial transformation.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) reportedly said that to ensure the continuation of meaningful participation of Malaysian businesses and talents in the fields of science, engineering and technology in the industry, the government had put emphasis on resources.
This would ensure that the next technology acceleration curve would be in line with emerging trends surrounding transportation and mobility, as well as allowing for clean energy technology adoption.
The government has also taken into account all feedback obtained from the industry as well as improvement opportunities learned from previous national automotive policies.
“As an outcome, the NAP2020 is a product of arduous benchmarking, longstanding research, strategic planning and rigorous consultation with various stakeholders to determine the right balance between the current needs of industry players and the requirement to align those strategies with future demands of global automotive and mobility trends,” the ministry said.
The automotive sector, which has been a prime mover of Malaysia’s industrialisation drive since the early 1980s, has grown today into an ecosystem that includes vehicle manufacturers, parts and components suppliers, engineering services, full-fledged product and process design facilities.
Malaysia Automotive Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii) chief executive officer Datuk Madani Sahari in his blog (www.madanisahari.com) said the revised NAP will focus on the development of ecosystems for Next-Generation Vehicles (NxGVs), Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and IR 4.0 technologies while continuing its focus on enhancing the development of energy-efficient vehicles (EEVs) which include internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid and electric powertrains.
The NxGVs, a combination of EEVs with new driving technology which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI), will push towards safer, more efficient and high-performance driving and will enable the creation of a new sector – MaaS.
“MaaS is a new sector, we cannot be left behind. Having said this, it requires a lot of programming, Big Data analytics, the Internet of Things, AI and many others,” said Madani.
Madani said Malaysia is already laying the framework for new mobility technologies to flourish within the country as well as the region.
“The new NAP will continue its proven framework of customised incentives into this new era of digitalisation within the automotive sector, and to propel overall mobility in line with sustainable development goals for all within the region,” hinted Madani.
The NAP, first introduced in 2006 to help regulate the local automotive industry, was reviewed in 2009 and 2014 to better reflect the changes in the automotive industry.
With the liberalisation of the automotive market since NAP 2014, the industry has introduced more new car models and variants at more competitive prices.
NAP 2014 saw Malaysia become a hub for overseas carmakers, with over 80 per cent of the vehicles in the country having complied with EEV specifications while exports of components and spare parts successfully exceeded the RM10 billion target.
NAP 2020 will be launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at MITI. – BERNAMA