National Automotive Plan 2020 under review to cope with crisis

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of International Trade and Industry is re-working the action plan in implementing the National Automotive Plan (NAP) 2020, which aims to make the nation’s automotive sector more competitive and developed.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, said the move would help revive the automotive sector through selective investments.

More money would be plouged into making vehicles more technologically advanced and eco-friendly, he said. Funds would also go to building up local talent and production of high-value aftersales products as well as upgrading the automotive supply chain, he added.

The Malaysian Automotive Association has revised its Total Industry Volume (TIV) projection downwards to 400,000 units from 607,000 because of the Covid-19 impact, Mohamed Azmin said in reply to a question from Ong Kian Ming’s (Bangi-PH) in Parliament today.


He said his ministry was drafting standards for electric vehicles and next-generation vehicles, and such standards were expected to be introduced in 2021.

"A vehicle testbed is being prepared in Cyberjaya to facilitate the testing and local development of next-generation vehicles."

Replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Ahmad Maslan (Pontian-BN) about the third national car project, Mohamed Azmin said his ministry wanted to make sure that the company assigned the responsibility to develop the project works with the Malaysian Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute to make it a success.