KUALA LUMPUR: The recent diesel subsidy rationalisation exercise has led to questions about how many diesel vehicles are out there on Malaysian roads and how popular they are.
According to the government’s data.gov.my website, diesel cars make up 7.4% or 1.03 million of the 13.93 million cars registered with the Road Transport Department (JPJ) from January 2000 to April 2024.
The data classifies cars as a vehicle category made up of motorcars, multi-purpose passenger cars, MPVs, jeeps, pickup trucks and window vans.
The figures refer to vehicle registrations, rather than the number of vehicles with an active licence.
No data is available for lorries, buses and other heavy vehicles.
The market share of diesel cars hit a peak in 2012 when 9.73% (61,598 units) of the 633,094 cars registered were powered by diesel.
Since then, it has gradually fallen to 7.95% (66,196 units) of the 832,340 cars registered last year.
Electric cars are meanwhile fast gaining in popularity in recent years with its share rising from 0.42% (3,129 units) in 2022 to 1.6% (13,301 units) last year.
In terms of cumulative registrations since 2000, the Toyota Hilux is the champion with 397,708 registered, followed by the Mitsubishi Triton (132,708), Ford Ranger (105,484), Isuzu D-Max (88,199) and Nissan Navara (59,618).
Pickup trucks make up 81.9% of all diesel cars with 844,246 units registered since 2000, followed by jeeps at 8.56% (88,171) and window vans at 8.29% (85,385).
The statistics show various configurations of diesel-powered cars.
They comprise cars that run on diesel or green diesel, while others have engines that can use more than one type of fuel – namely diesel/green diesel and natural gas.
Also included are hybrid cars that run on electricity or diesel.
On June 10, the price of diesel went up from RM2.15 to RM3.35 litre.
On June 19, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said his ministry had approved 100,000 applications for the monthly RM200 Budi Madani cash assistance under the diesel subsidy rationalisation.
The scheme, which started on May 28, is a platform to distribute cash assistance to eligible privately-owned diesel vehicle owners.
Amir Hamzah Azizan said the applications included individual diesel vehicle owners (Budi Individu), farmers, and small planters (Budi Agri-Komoditi).
Among the car manufacturers, Toyota recorded the biggest number of diesel-fuelled cars registered in Malaysia with 457,196 vehicles, followed by Mitsubishi (144,126) and Ford (112,814).
Also recorded were registered diesel cars from luxury carmakers, though their numbers are smaller.
Among them are Mercedes Benz with 6,398 units, BMW (5,873), Audi (1,442) and Porsche (658).
