Tesla has received approval from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to import its electric vehicles into Malaysia. This was revealed by its minister, Tengku Zafrul on his Twitter account this morning.
Zafrul noted that Tesla’s entry into Malaysia was done through a program that was set up by the ministry called BEV Global Leaders. This initiative is meant to increase the BEV demand in Malaysia and the minister noted that Tesla was the program’s first applicant.
Malaysia Welcomes @Tesla! @MITIMalaysia has approved Tesla's application to import BEVs into Malaysia.
Tesla will establish a Head Office, Tesla Experience & Service Centres, and Supercharger network, simultaneously creating skilled & better paying jobs for M'sians. pic.twitter.com/BbQP7jNazX
— Tengku Zafrul 🇲🇾 (@tzafrul_aziz) March 1, 2023
Aside from EVs, the company will also establish an office here alongside showrooms and service centres. Naturally, Tesla will be setting up a Supercharger network in Malaysia too which would bode well not only for local Tesla owners but also those in Thailand and Singapore since this would allow them to travel seamlessly between the three countries.
Singapore was the first official Tesla market in Southeast Asia after the company came back to the country in 2021. Tesla then expanded its presence in the region by officially announcing its arrival in the Thailand market in late 2022.
Tesla has actually entered Malaysia back in 2017 although not to release its products here. Instead, the company has set up a Finance Shared Service Centre in Penang which was responsible for Tesla’s accounting and finances in EMEA and Asia Pacific.
The establishment was closed down a few years later although Tesla continued to list its Malaysian subsidiary in the financial reports year after year. In October 2022, the company then submitted a notification to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) to change the nature of its Malaysian subsidiary from shared service operation to automotive sales, retail, and services.
In the same month, the name of the subsidiary was also changed from Tesla Service Sdn. Bhd. to Tesla Sdn. Bhd. In today’s announcement, Zafrul did not mention when exactly Tesla will roll out its first EV in Malaysia but nevertheless, this is indeed a significant update to all the paperwork that the EV company has done for the past few months.
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