Budget 2024: Prasarana Malaysia to buy 150 electric buses, build charging depots to support LRT3 project
More EV update from Budget 2024. Malaysian finance minister and prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that Prasarana Malaysia will acquire 150 electric buses and build three bus depots to support the LRT3 project, at a cost of RM600 million.
Now called the LRT Shah Alam Line, the LRT3 project is expected to be completed and open to the public by March 2025. The 37.8 km line is set to have 20 stations linking Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya to Johan Setia in Klang. The 150 electric buses will serve as feeder transports to neighbourhoods around the stations.
Interestingly, just this very week, transport minister Anthony Loke told the Dewan Rakyat that electric buses are “too expensive” for the Malaysian government. Costs for purchasing EV buses are double that of conventional buses, and that “if it were possible, we would want all bus fleets to be EV bus fleets,” he said.
Also, Rapid Bus (a subsidiary of Prasarana) recently announced its target of having 30% of its fleet being fully electric by 2030, onwards to 100% EV buses by 2050. The company aims to start with an EV bus fleet of 4% for 2024, and up to 100 units by 2026.
How the 150 new electric buses announced in Budget 2024 will fit this plan remains to be seen.
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