COMOS at E-Mobilia World 2015 – four new EV stations, 10 more by end-2015; 40 in total by 2017
At the E-Mobilia World 2015 conference – held in conjunction with the 2015 International Greentech and Eco Products Exhibition and Conference Malaysia (IGEM) – Comprehensive Mobility Solutions (COMOS) chief technical officer Fadzili Ahmad Shiyuti gave attendees a sort of status update regarding the profress of the electric vehicle sharing service.
Since its launch in June, COMOS has collected 850 registered members, with 220 fully paid-up and able to use the service. Through the 150 bookings made so far, customers have racked up 500 hours of use, and travelled as much as 15,000 km.
According to Fadzili, most trips have concentrated around Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley area, but some have ventured as far as Ulu Yam up north and Nilai down south; yet, COMOS has encountered no instances of their EVs running out of battery so far. He added that this statistic means that the range anxiety fears people have regarding EVs have been unfounded.
It’s not all smooth sailing, however; the breakdown of user demographics showed that only 32% of COMOS members have actually booked and driven the cars. Feedback from users has shown that the lack of stations (and the inconvenient locations of those that already exist), along with the relatively pricey usage rate have been the main factors behind customer pushback.
In response, COMOS has worked to solve at least one of these issues, by opening four new stations in the Klang Valley – Mines Shopping Centre, KL Sentral and the Kelana Jaya and Universiti LRT stations. These are in addition to existing facilities at the Bangsar and Asia Jaya LRT stations, Medan Tuanku, Munshi Abdullah, Universiti Malaya and UTM Jalan Semarak (the previous bays at Pasar Seni and Ampang Park LRT stations as well as Lorong Bunus appear to have been removed).
The company is also looking to expand to 10 new stations by the end of this year, as well as adding another 10 new Renault Zoes to the original fleet of 10. Also on the road map are the addition of several new stations across Peninsular Malaysia, grouped into Zones 1, 2 and 3.
Zone 1 incorporates the Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya areas, including the existing Kelana Jaya and Ampang Line LRT stations. By 2017, this should bolster EV station count from the current 11 to 40 stations in Klang Valley. From there, the company will move to Zone 2, which includes the municipalities of Subang Jaya, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya, as well as the stations along the upcoming LRT extensions and the new MRT Line 1 and 2.
Running concurrently is Zone 3 – the company is looking to implement fast chargers at rest stops along the North-South Expressway (NSE), as well as introduce the service in Johor Bahru and Penang. The former will be done in stages, starting with a pilot program from KL to Melaka, then will continue to JB and extend from KL to Penang.