I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone on a road trip in my own country. Therefore, I decided to take an EV to Ipoh, the capital of Perak.
To be frank, I don’t think there is much to do in Ipoh. The main reason to travel to Ipoh is for food, especially chicken rice (one of my favourites) and dim sum. If you are a prayer, you can choose one of many caves that house Buddhist/Taoist/Indian deities. However, I just learnt that there are natural hot springs in Perak, so I have a good excuse to return to Ipoh. Until now, I thought only countries near volcanoes have natural hot springs.
Regardless, food was not the main objective of this trip. The main task was to see if driving long distances with an EV is possible. EVs are becoming very popular in Malaysia due to the government subsidies. Furthermore, many people who bought EVs want their first taste of the future. However, there are some backlashes against EVs; the primary reasons are range anxiety, charger speed anxiety, and competition for chargers. Thus, I wanted to investigate if the reasons are a legitimate concern or just a baseless argument.
Although you don’t need to charge your EV when driving from Penang to Ipoh, I stopped at a checkpoint to try the chargers. I must admit that charging an EV among ICE vehicles was pretty fun, and my experience immediately ruled out two anxieties: range anxiety and charger speed anxiety. When I arrived at the checkpoint, no one was using the charger besides me. Many people asked me questions about the whole process, such as the price, speed, convenience, etc. I was patient enough to provide the answers since many were curious. I felt like a teacher at one point. The price was not too shabby, and the charging speed was swift.
2.5 hours later, I was in Ipoh. The only tourist attraction I went to was the Perak Cave. It was quite a sight. After finishing praying, I went to a local cafe. The pasta was not great; fortunately, the delicious tiramisu cake compensated for the bad pasta. Then, I went to a local theme park for go-karting, which was absolutely abysmal. I would not recommend coming here again. I ended the itinerary by heading to Red Brick Cafe in a secluded Ipoh area. The environment was nice, but the drinks were mediocre at best.
If you notice, I haven’t talked about the third anxiety, which is competition for chargers; this is it. Although no one was using the chargers at the checkpoint, it was a different story in the city centre. EVs are more popular with outsiders (usually from KL) and use most of the chargers available in Ipoh. It took me around 15 minutes to find out. Please bear in mind that it was peak hour over the weekend. You can find a charger easily if you plan to charge your car in off-peak hours.
Out of the three anxieties, I easily disproved two, while one was easily dealt with. Thus, based on this experience, you can drive an EV long-range without significant issues. However, I must explicitly mention one of the biggest cons of driving an EV in Malaysia: You MUST download many apps because you can choose various chargers from different suppliers. I find that Gentai and JomCharge are the best.
I will drive an EV again the next time I go to Ipoh, this time for the natural hot springs at Banjaran Resort.
Thanks for reading. If you are still here … do you really think I went to Ipoh just to test an EV? I may have gone to do something special.
😉 You know who you are, hehe.