Electric cars and their future.

I'll admit it — I was a sceptic. I grew up on Hot Wheels and scale models, the kind of kid who could identify a car from its headlight shape. The sound of an engine was part of the romance. An electric car, to me, sounded like a very expensive golf cart.

Then I drove one properly for the first time. No gear changes, no lag, no noise. Just a wall of quiet, smooth pull the moment your foot touches the pedal. The silence isn't emptiness — it's what's left when the noise goes away. You hear the air-con, the road, your own thoughts. Ten minutes in, I stopped missing the engine note.

That's the thing I tell people: you can't understand the appeal from the outside. It's not about saving the planet. It's that the car simply feels better to drive.

Here's what surprises people: Malaysia is further along than the sceptics think. Charging networks have expanded quickly in the last couple of years — you'll now find fast chargers at highway rest stops, shopping malls and hotels, and apps that show you where every point is before you leave home. A KL-to-Penang run with a charging stop at a highway plaza is completely normal now.

Walk into a mall car park in KL and count the green plates. BYD, Tesla, Ora, Mercedes EQ models — they're everywhere. And when a brand like Perodua, the country's most affordable nameplate, commits to an EV, you know this is no longer a rich man's experiment. Affordable EVs are the moment the market truly turns, and that moment is getting close.

NOTEMy rule of thumb: watch what ordinary families buy, not what influencers review. Families are starting to buy electric.

“What if I run out of charge?”

Range anxiety is real for the first month and then it quietly disappears. Modern EVs comfortably cover what most of us drive in a day — city runs, the school run, the airport trip — with charge left over. Road trips just need one planning step added: where to charge while you have lunch.

“How much does charging cost?”

Charge at home overnight and it's a fraction of what you'd spend at a petrol pump for the same distance. Public fast chargers cost more than home charging, but even then it usually works out cheaper per kilometre than petrol. The gap widens every time fuel prices move.

“Is it safe in our rain?”

Yes. EVs are built and tested for wet weather — the battery is sealed and protected. Malaysia's monsoon is not the obstacle people imagine it to be.

“Won't the battery die in a few years?”

Batteries last far longer than the rumours suggest, and most manufacturers back them with long warranties. Degradation is gradual, not a cliff. The EV you buy today will very likely outlast the phone you're reading this on, several times over.

Here's my honest position as a rental operator: for a lot of people in Malaysia right now, a hybrid is the smartest car on the road. No charging routine to learn, no range questions, just noticeably lower fuel bills — and that matters when you're driving long distances.

It's why our fleet already includes hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Corolla Cross HEV and the Lexus LM 350h. They give our customers a taste of electrified driving without asking them to change a single habit. Hybrids aren't a detour on the road to electric — they're the on-ramp.

I don't have a crystal ball, but the direction is easy to read:

• More affordable EVs — as local and Chinese brands compete, prices will keep sliding toward what Malaysians actually pay for a family car today
• Charging everywhere — malls, condos and highway stops treating chargers like Wi-Fi: a basic expectation, not a feature
• Better range and faster charging — the car you buy in 2028 will charge faster and go further than today's at the same price
• Quieter cities — the difference in cabin noise is already dramatic; multiply that across a whole city
• New buying habits — people will rent and experience EVs first, then buy the one they liked

Will petrol cars disappear next year? No. Will they still be normal in ten years? Probably. But every year the question shifts from “why would I buy electric?” to “why wouldn't I?” — and that shift is one-way.

There's never been a better, lower-risk way to form your own opinion: rent one. Spend a weekend with an EV before you spend years with one. Feel the acceleration, live with the charging, decide with your hands on the wheel instead of someone else's comment section.

That's exactly why we put electric and hybrid vehicles in our fleet — like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, which remains one of the most impressive cars I've ever driven, electric or not. Guests arrive curious and leave converted, and some of them go on to buy their first EV. I consider that part of our job now.

The future of cars isn't something happening to us. It's something we get to try before it arrives. Take it for a spin.