ACO Group, one of Malaysia’s largest distributors of electrical products, has tied up with EV Connections, the developer of the JomCharge app and operator of 5 solar-powered EV chargers at petrol stations, to install a 180 kW DC fast charger at ACO Group’s headquarters in Taman Johor Jaya in Johor Bahru.

ACO Group says the DC fast charger will be one of the fastest in the country, and the fastest in Johor. To encourage EV adoption, the service will be available to the public free of charge for one year.

There two types charging methods for electric vehicles. The smaller, lower power consumption alternating current (AC) ‘wall box’ ones are commonly used in households and commercial buildings. These provide around 3 to 10 kW of power (actual power pulled is vehicle dependent), and are usually used for overnight charging.

Direct current (DC) ones are bulky but are the fastest, providing over 100 kW of power. These can fully charge an EV in less than hour. It’s usually used for ‘topping up’ charge levels for long distance inter-state driving.

However, note that just because the DC charger pushes out more than 100 kW of power, it doesn’t mean that the vehicle is able to accept it. Ultimately, how much power can an EV pull is limited by its on-board charging hardware.

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Together with EV Connections, which the ACO Group’s subsidiary ACO Holdings has a 10 percent stake in, the ACO Group also intends to grow its business in the solar-powered EV chargers sector and aims to roll out 100 DC chargers within the next 5 years, including solar-powered ones.

“Together with EV Connection, we aim to address the issue (limited charging infrastructure) by providing easy and convenient access for EV owners to charge their EVs with solar power, a total green solution. We will be building charging stations at strategic places, such as shopping malls and petrol stations as well as private properties.

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"Our goal is to build at least 100 DC EV chargers in Malaysia in the next 5 years, and this can be achieved through our strong distribution network built over the past 30 years, as well as our extensive client portfolio.

“EV Connection is able to access our inventories of solar-related and other electric products at a very competitive price, thereby improving their cost efficiency and boost their competitiveness of EV Connection charging solutions. This will enable us to scale up faster and expedite progress of EV adoption in Malaysia,” said Sean Tan, Executive Director of ACO Berhad in a recent interview with BFM radio.