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THERE'S now a surge of electric vehicles (EVs) on Malaysian roads. In April 2026, EV registrations saw a staggering 103.8 per cent year-on-year increase, accounting for roughly one in every 13 new vehicles registered.

While we celebrate this leap towards green mobility, a silent crisis is brewing in our rearview mirror: the inevitable mountain of waste from vehicles that will eventually reach their end-of-life (EOL).

Projections by the Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii) suggest that by 2050, Malaysia will need to manage nearly 870,000 depleted EV batteries.

However, the challenge extends far beyond just batteries. A vehicle is a complex assembly of steel, aluminium, copper, and a significant amount of plastics and composites. Is our ecosystem prepared for the “afterlife” of these high-tech machines?

The technical disparity between traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and EVs also complicates recovery. 

While EVs are roughly 85 to 90 per cent recyclable by weight, they contain three to four times more copper than ICE cars, along with rare earth magnets in electric motors.

Currently, Malaysia’s EOL management is in its infancy. While the National Automotive Policy (NAP) 2020 sets an ambitious target of a 70 per cent recycling rate for EOL vehicles, the physical infrastructure is severely lagging.

Right now, Malaysia has only two licensed Authorised Automotive Treatment Facilities (AATFs) to handle the complex dismantling of EVs. 

That figure falls dramatically short of the government’s ambitious target of 21 facilities by 2030.

In addition, only four scheduled waste recycling facilities are approved by the Department of Environment (DoE) for processing SW103-type wastes, including batteries containing cadmium, nickel, mercury, or lithium

However, the biggest gaps in Malaysia’s circular economy lie in the non-metallic components and the lack of a legal mandate. Plastics and composites remain a major hurdle.

Even in Europe, less than 20 per cent of automotive plastics are currently recycled, with the remainder often ending up in landfills or being incinerated. 

Furthermore, there is no overarching legal framework or directive that specifically addresses the disposal and recycling of the entire EV system.

Malaysia has yet to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for EVs. Under EPR, manufacturers would be legally obligated to manage the take-back and recycling of vehicles they sell.

Without this, the burden of disposal falls on a fragmented and often unregulated informal sector that lacks the safety protocols to handle high-voltage EV systems.

The silver lining is that the groundwork is being laid. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry launched MS 2818:2025, the country’s and Asean’s first EV battery passport standard.

The standard establishes a digital record to track EV batteries’ composition, origin, lifespan and recyclability, ensuring transparency, traceability and sustainability across the supply chain.

On another front, collaborative efforts between automakers like BMW and universities are also exploring “second-life” applications, where retired EV batteries are repurposed for rural electrification and stationary energy storage.

We must move faster to implement an EOL vehicle management policy, including EVs. We need a robust legislative framework that mandates EPR for EV, a rapid expansion of licensed AATFs, and a strategy to tackle the “plastics challenge”.

The transition to EVs should not just be about changing what is under the hood; it must be about reimagining the entire lifecycle of the car to ensure that today’s green mobility does not become tomorrow’s environmental nightmare.

Dr Omar Yaakob

Adjunct Professor,

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: Forum@dailyexpress.com.my