EV sales in Malaysia, first half of 2026 – 31,738 units, up 85% on last year; Proton drives growth
The first-half numbers for 2026 are in, and Malaysia’s EV market has shrugged off its biggest test yet. A total of 31,738 fully electric vehicles were registered between January and June 2026, ...
Source: Paul Tan's Automotive News · July 21, 2026 at 8:31 AM · AI-assisted report
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KUALA LUMPUR, 21 JULY 2026 —
The first-half numbers for 2026 are in, and Malaysia’s EV market has shrugged off its biggest test yet. A total of 31,738 fully electric vehicles were registered between January and June 2026, according to road transport department (JPJ) data, up 85.1% from the 17,143 units in the same period last year.
Market Impact
That growth has come despite the import duty exemption for CBU electric vehicles expiring on December 31, 2025, which many expected would knock the wind out of the market. Month by month, 2026 has beaten 2025 every single time.
January’s 6,239 units were up 269% year-on-year, although that figure was flattered by the year-end rush, as buyers and distributors scrambled to beat the incentive deadline and registrations spilled over from a record December 2025 (8,123 units). February was the low point of the half at 3,635 units as the post-deadline hangover set in, yet even that was 68% ahead of the same month last year.
The narrowest gap came in May, up 21.3%, before June closed the half with 6,215 units, up 89.9% and the strongest month since January. The bigger picture is that EVs are now a meaningful slice of the overall market. Battery-electric vehicles accounted for 7.8% of all registrations in the first half of 2026, up from 4.3% a year earlier.
Put another way, roughly one in every 13 new vehicles registered in Malaysia this year has been fully electric, against about one in 23 last year. Where has the growth come from? Overwhelmingly, Proton. The national brand registered 13,530 EVs in the first half, up 238% from 4,003 a year ago, when the e.MAS 7 was its only electric model and the e.MAS 5 had yet to go on sale.
Proton alone added around 9,500 units year-on-year, which is roughly two-thirds of the market’s entire increase. The newcomers helped too: iCaur (2,573 units) and TQ Wuling (461) did not exist here a year ago, Zeekr nearly quadrupled to 2,086, Leapmotor went from 87 units to 956, and MG tripled to 839. BYD, last year’s EV champion, grew 5% to 5,675 units and has surrendered the lead to Proton by a wide margin.
Tesla is down 18% year-on-year at 1,962 units despite its June quarter-end surge, and BMW, once the biggest of the legacy EV players, fell 58% to 376 units. The second half will be a tougher comparison.
With 31,738 units on the board by June, 2026 has already reached 71% of last year’s full-year record of 44,813, and merely matching the 27,670 units of the second half of 2025 would take the year to around 59,000, up a third. But last year’s second half built steadily towards that December incentive rush, a base that will not be easy to beat without a deadline to chase.
You can explore the full EV picture, by model, brand and month, on our car sales data tool. Add paultan.org as a preferred source on Google Search Add Follow paultan.org on Google News Follow --> Learn more: JPJ Vehicle Registration Data (AI-assisted rewrite, based on the original source)